Contemplation and Mystical Prayer

b) Contemplation⁴³ or effective prayer is the final act (actus completivus) of meditation, by which the soul flies straightway into the presence of God and beholds Him directly,⁴⁴—not by intuition, as the pure spirits behold Him in Heaven, but discursively, i. e., by means of the truths and principles suggested by the preceding meditation. Hence the three stages of cogitation, meditation, and contemplation.⁴⁵

⁴³ St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 179 sq.—For the literature of the subject see Readings, infra, p. 54 sq.

⁴⁴ Rom. I, 20; cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 179, art. 1, ad 3.

⁴⁵ Op. cit., qu. 180, art. 3.

Contemplation is called ordinary or acquired (ordinaria sive acquisita) if it is the result of one’s own endeavor, aided by divine grace; infused, passive or extraordinary (infusa sive passiva) when directly infused by God. Extraordinary (passive or infused) contemplation is a charism which God usually gives as a reward to those who cultivate the interior life. It is identical with the mystic state. In its higher forms it is sometimes accompanied by extraordinary manifestations of divine grace, such as ecstasies, visions, and revelations,⁴⁶ and culminates in the mystic union of the soul with God (also called mystic betrothal, spiritual marriage, mystic death or annihilation). These form the subject matter of Mystical Theology.⁴⁷ They represent a higher stage, being more perfect than the ordinary prayer, either mental or vocal, first, because they proceed from a higher principle i. e., a mind directly enlightened by God; secondly, because acts of prayer performed in these states are more intensive, and, thirdly, because they result in a more intimate union with God.

⁴⁶ Matt. V, 8.—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 180, art. 2: “Something can pertain to the contemplative life in two ways: in one way essentially, in another way dispositively. Indeed, the moral virtues do not pertain essentially to the contemplative life, because the end of the contemplative life is the consideration of truth. . . . But the moral virtues pertain dispositively to the contemplative life. For the act of contemplation, in which the contemplative life essentially consists, is impeded both by the vehemence of the passions, by which the intention of the soul is drawn away from intelligible things to sensible things, and by exterior disturbances. But the moral virtues impede the vehemence of the passions and calm the disturbances of exterior occupations. And therefore the moral virtues pertain dispositively to the contemplative life.”—IDEM, ibid., art. 3: “The virtue of chastity especially renders man fit for contemplation, insofar as venereal pleasures most greatly depress the mind toward sensible things.”—IDEM, ibid., art. 5: “The highest degree of contemplation in the present life is that which Paul had in rapture, according to which he was in an intermediate condition between the state of the present life and the future life.”—Cfr. ibid., qu. 173, art. 3 (visio prophetica); qu. 175 (raptus).—Tillmann, Das Gebet, II, 423 sqq.—For other literature on the extraordinary phenomena of the higher spiritual life see Readings, infra.

⁴⁷ Gal. II, 20.—Poulain, The Graces of Interior Prayer, pp. 59 sqq., 200 sqq. On the literature of mystical theology see Readings, infra.

“Whoever tries to reach the summit of perfection,” says St. Gregory the Great, “and wishes to stand upon the peak of contemplation, must first prove his mettle by practicing good works.”⁴⁹

⁴⁹ Moral., l. VI, c. 37, n. 59: “Those who strive to apprehend the summit of perfection, when they desire to hold the citadel of contemplation, must first prove themselves in the field of works through exercise.”—IDEM, ibid., n. 60: “For the time of action is first, the time of contemplation last. Hence it is necessary that every perfect man first exercise his mind in virtues and afterward store it in the granary of rest.” (Migne, P. L., LXXV, 763).

Richard of St. Victor says that good works, meditation, and prayer are the three means by which man may attain to contemplation.⁵⁰

⁵⁰ De Praeparatione Animi ad Contemplationem, c. 79 (Migne, P. L., CXCVI, 56).

Seneca⁵¹ writes: “We are wont to say that the highest good is to live according to nature. Nature has adapted us to both meditation and action. . . . Nature desires that I should do both—be active⁵² and devote myself to contemplation.⁵³ I do both, because even meditation is not without action.”

⁵¹ De Otio, V, 1, 8.—Cfr. St. Gregory the Great, Moral., l. VI, c. 37, n. 61: “What is expressed by Mary, who sat hearing the words of the Lord, if not the contemplative life? What is signified by Martha occupied with exterior services, if not the active life? But Martha’s care is not rebuked, while Mary is even praised, because the merits of the active life are great, but those of the contemplative life more excellent.” (Migne, P. L., LXXV, 764).

⁵² Agere.

⁵³ Contemplationi vacare.

Concerning Mystical Prayer. 1. Notion. Mystical prayer denotes contemplation of God or of heavenly things, full of affection, extraordinary and ineffable, with a certain sense of the divine presence, and indeed an intimate one. Although not all require this sense as essential, nevertheless in that sense by which mystics are said to experience divine things, we think there is a specific note by which mystical contemplation is proved to differ from common contemplation.

It is commonly known that mystical contemplation itself is distinguished by various degrees, of which the supreme is spiritual marriage. Moreover, mystical facts or phenomena which accompany that contemplation are called, some exdeic, insofar as they have as term something created, such as visions themselves, revelations, ecstasies; others are endeic, which attain God Himself or a closer conjunction with Him. The former pertain to graces gratuitously given, which are neither the object of merit nor contribute to sanctity; while the latter, in some degree, are offered as a sufficiently common reward of peculiar fidelity and are very useful for sanctity. Therefore the former are neither to be sought nor desired, but rather humbly to be fled. Nor must one strive indiscreetly for perfect contemplation ¹; yet for this a man can laudably dispose himself by great purity of heart, profound humility, and ardent charity.

Every mystical state indeed is the fruit of its own grace, distinct from the grace which effects a supernatural and salutary act; but a remote general aptitude, not to say universal, for obtaining that state in some degree seems rather to be admitted.

Let it be enough to have intimated these things concerning prayer; for more, cf., for example, in Quaestiones De virtute religionis et pietatis.

¹ Alvarez de Paz, De inquisitione pacis, b. 5, p. 2, c. 13.

1844. Principles. I. Infused contemplation, IN THE ACTIVE STATE, is usually preceded both by the prayer of natural recollection, or of contemplative leisure, and by purgation of soul through aridity of sense. We say it is usually preceded; for "the Spirit breathes where He wills" (John 3:8); nor are there lacking examples of souls which have been immediately raised to the last grade of contemplation without having passed through the preceding grades.

Moreover: 1. The PRAYER OF NATURAL RECOLLECTION is said to be granted to the soul "when the intellect does not need, with labor, as it were to go outside the soul in order to consider some mystery or eternal truth; but, drawn away from external things and gathered as it were within the soul itself, without labor, indeed with great sweetness, it attends to that truth or mystery, whatever it may be. - Contemplative leisure is almost the same, except that in recollection the soul attends to some particular devout thought; but in leisure, with a certain general knowledge of God, it feels itself gathered within itself and sweetly drawn by God."¹⁶

2. SPIRITUAL PURGATION consists not only in natural aridity, by which souls proceeding even by the ordinary way often labor, but in supernatural aridity, which is a drawing of grace and a certain light bringing punishment and obscurity. - This is twofold: namely aridity of sense and aridity of spirit:

1. Aridity of sense is a most troublesome subtraction of sensible devotion, through which the soul is led to a certain alienation from all sensible pleasures, both earthly and spiritual. It endures until, the senses having been purified, the soul is rendered apt for the first grades of contemplation.¹⁷ 2) "Aridity of spirit, or substantial aridity, is a certain divine light by which God causes the soul to recognize its own nothingness." In this state, although more attentive to pleasing God, it sees itself in a certain more terrible agony, believes all things done by itself worthy of punishments, and itself hateful to God; indeed, it sometimes experiences a thousand temptations, the punishments of the damned, and divine dereliction. God is wont through this purgation to prepare the soul for the last grade of contemplation, i.e., for passive union, in which there are ecstasies, raptures, etc.¹⁸

1845. II. The GRADES OF CONTEMPLATION are indeed various and many; yet among them three principal ones are numbered, namely supernatural recollection, quiet, and union. Now:

1. SUPERNATURAL RECOLLECTION is had "when the gathering of the powers does not come about by the work of the soul itself, but by benefit of the light which God infuses, and through which a great and sensible divine love is excited in it." The soul is placed, through this infused recollection, in the PASSIVE STATE, in which "it must not investigate more curiously what that interior recollection of spirit is; but let it permit itself to be directed by God to consider those things and to make those acts toward which it knows itself to be more borne by God."¹⁹

2. QUIET differs from the preceding grade in this, that "in recollection the force of divine love is communicated immediately to the external senses, which God Himself causes to be gathered within the soul; but in quiet love is communicated immediately to the spirit, in the very center of the soul: and the love itself is more ardent," and sometimes is diffused to the senses themselves. Then, in quiet, "the will indeed is suspended, which remains as it were bound, because then it can love no other object besides God, who draws it to Himself; but the intellect and memory or imagination sometimes remain free and run here and there." Nor, truly, should the soul be saddened about this, but neither should it strive to gather its thoughts; for it would attempt this in vain and would lose quiet: but let it elicit only those acts toward which it feels itself sweetly impelled by God.²⁰ - There is usually a following:

3. UNION, namely passive union, by which God offers Himself to be seen by the soul not only as near (as in the preceding grades), but as present: and the soul experiences Him joined to itself by a certain sweet contact; whence it can no longer doubt concerning the truth of that presence. See St. Alphonsus.²¹

VI. Contemplation strictly so called, insofar as it is distinguished from meditation or common mental prayer, is "the elevation of a mind suspended in God, tasting the joys of eternal sweetness," says Scala claustralium, c. 1 at the end,⁶ or "a simple intuition of truth," II-II, q. 180, a. 3, ad 1.

⁶ Migne, P. L., t. CLXXXIV, col. 746.

Contemplation differs from meditation: the latter is instituted by the labor of discourse or by a succession of images and representations, by which we seek to know God; the former without labor beholds God, now found, by a simple intuition; - in the latter the soul operates by its own acts through the powers of grace, namely by acts of its own powers elevated by grace; the former God operates in a special way, namely through the more perfect gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the soul rather suffers, because the very light and divine love, by which it is then wholly filled, render it sweetly attentive to contemplating the goodness of God.⁷

⁷ Cf. St. Alphonsus, Pr. conf., n. 126.

Contemplation can be distinguished as natural or scientific, and supernatural or Christian. The first occurs in a human or active manner, and concerns any truth whatever; namely, an inquiry or demonstration of truth having been completed, someone without labor and with sweetness attends to the truth, whatever it may be: thus by one intuition he knows truths which he had known only by long discourse and labor. The other turns about supernatural truths as such, which the intellect, instructed by supernatural habits and gifts, under their light and motion, considers from the intention of charity above the human mode, and more passively than actively. The first stops in the intellect; the other passes to affection through love.

In the present matter we treat only of Christian contemplation of supernatural truths. This, St. Thomas teaching, "although it consists essentially in the intellect, nevertheless has its principle in the affection, insofar, namely, as someone is incited to contemplation from the charity of God. And because the end corresponds to the principle, from this it is that the term and end of the contemplative life also has its being in the affection, while, namely, someone delights in the vision of the thing loved, and the very delight of the thing seen further excites love," II-II, q. 180, a. 7, ad 1.

It is perfected by one act, although there can be many acts preparatory to it, by which we ascend to it.⁸ Three gifts of the Holy Spirit concur for it: of itself the gift of understanding, sometimes the gift of knowledge, especially the gift of wisdom. Of itself the gift of understanding, whose office is to penetrate and to behold by a simple gaze, in the darkness of faith, divine truths; for this reason it is called by St. Catherine of Siena the light of living faith. Sometimes the gift of knowledge, insofar as by the instinct of the Holy Spirit, from a right judgment of creatures, we ascend to the knowledge of God. Especially the gift of wisdom, through which by affective cognition we judge concerning God and divine things from a certain connaturality and affinity, and perceive and as it were taste them: this is most properly contemplation.

⁸ St. Thomas, II-II, q. 180, a. 3.

By reason of the mode by which the soul attains the object, one contemplation occurs through affirmation, another through negation,⁹ "insofar as God in this life is known... by mode of excellence and removal"; and whatever goodness and perfection is found in creatures, we attribute most excellently to God as the first principle of all, every imperfection being excluded; or, on the contrary, whatever is found in creatures, we deny of God, who is superexalted, superessential, and supercomprehensible, and thus we see what He is not. Yet this latter does not stop in mere negation, but forms a general and confused concept, by which the mind, all created perfections having been removed, apprehends that God is infinitely perfect, most pure, and most eminent. And therefore it is more perfect than the first, because under the special action of infused divine light, from the abundance of light, it brings in a concept far greater of the divine greatness, and thus God is known more clearly and sublimely. It is called divine darkness, clear darkness, and sublime cognition of God through ignorance.¹⁰

⁹ St. Thomas, comm. in Dion. de div. Nom. c. 4, l. 4; I, q. 13, a. 1; q. 4, aa. 1 and 2. Cf. Dionysius the Carthusian, de Fonte lucis, a. 13.

¹⁰ II-II, q. 8, a. 7.

Now, however, very many more recent authors are accustomed also to distinguish a twofold contemplation by reason of principle: acquired, as they say, or active, and infused or passive, which many call extraordinary. Yet this division, which seems unknown to the ancients, cannot be proved and is not proposed without danger. For a) both enjoy and are described by authors with the same characters, gifts, and distinctive notes; b) every supernatural contemplation, from the lowest grade to the highest, is one in species from the identity of the formal eliciting principle, which is the intellect instructed by supernatural habits not only of the virtues but also by the gifts: for it occurs under the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and therefore under His motion, for receiving which the gifts are ordained, and for this reason there is none which is not supernatural or infused; c) nor can any properly be called extraordinary or as if miraculous, since the gifts of the Holy Spirit are the connatural principles of any contemplation whatever, even the highest; d) but if it is said that after meditation or study, after the manner of philosophers, the soul now can by one intuition contemplate truths subjected to meditation, this will be merely natural contemplation; which besides, considering the condition of fallen nature, cannot endure sufficiently that from it there be constituted a distinct state of mental prayer.

VII. Various grades of prayer. - Therefore computing the diverse manners of conducting oneself by which mental prayer is instituted, not only those which regard contemplation, but also those which pertain to meditation and common mental prayer and are as if preparatory to contemplation, several grades of perfection in prayer can be distinguished: the first is of discursive prayer or meditation through discourse; the second is of affective prayer; the third of recollection; the fourth of quiet or leisure; the fifth of simple union; the sixth of ecstatic union or espousal; the seventh of consummated union or spiritual marriage.

The first two regard common mental prayer, and access to both, at least after some time, lies open to all the pious and devout; hence to these, generally and of themselves, all are to be directed. They pertain to the active ascetical life and to the purgative and illuminative way.

The last grades, from quiet onward, certainly consist in the mystical or passive life, and constitute contemplative prayer properly so called, which is totally directed by the Holy Spirit. Of this, St. John of the Cross testifying, there is a threefold sign: a) if the soul can no longer bear meditation, b) if it experiences no desire of fixing the imagination on some object, c) if it loves to remain alone with God. This last is the principal, because the two former are not absolutely certain, since they also sometimes arise from other causes, such as from bodily indisposition.

The third grade seems to be intermediate, and as it were mixed prayer, so that by some a twofold recollection is distinguished, one acquired, the other infused. But it is better said to pertain of itself to the ascetical life and to active mental prayer, yet in such a way that it disposes to passivity, and in it certain motions are given transitorily under infused divine light and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit gathering the senses, and thus inviting the soul to a more perfect life and to contemplation properly so called: thus especially if it is frequent and habitual, and fully evolved and very simple, as if nascent contemplation.¹¹

¹¹ Cf. Tanquerey, L'Oraison de simplicite in the periodical La Vie spirituelle, t. III.

In species: 1) Discursive prayer is when the cognitive faculties have the first parts in it, passing and discoursing from truth to truth.

2. Affective prayer, when the first parts are now not with the cognitive faculties but with the appetitive, so that affections of the will and heart predominate.

3. Prayer of recollection, also called of simplicity because it occurs without ratiocination and without labor, when the intellect, abstracted from external things and gathered within itself, without labor and with sweetness attends to supernatural truths and to God, being sweetly attracted by God.

4. Quiet, in which a more ardent love is immediately communicated to the spirit in the very center of the soul, and sometimes is diffused even to the senses themselves: thus the will is suspended in its natural activity and remains as if bound, because then it is not able to love any object besides God, who draws it to Himself; but the intellect and memory or phantasy remain free and sometimes run here and there.

5. Passive union, by which God presents Himself to be seen, in darkness, by the soul not merely as nearby, as in the preceding grades, but as present; and the soul experiences Him joined to itself through a certain sweet contact. In the darkness there is a clear idea of God present, who joins Himself to the soul in the center of the soul, so that it cannot doubt the truth of that presence. In this darkness all the interior powers are suspended, and sometimes the exterior powers, which are at least weakened: for it fixes the mind and keeps it immobile; hence memory recalls nothing except God, the will is so joined to God that it cannot love another, the intellect is filled with so great a light that it is not able to think of another thing, nor even of the graces which it actually receives. It is namely a union which the soul does not see, nor feel, nor advert itself to have.

6. Union of espousal, in which even the bodily senses are bound in such a way that they do not see, nor hear, nor perceive even cutting or burning, ecstasy. But if the grace is stronger, it snatches the soul to union by a sudden and violent motion, which is called rapture, and indeed sometimes in such a way that the soul feels itself snatched outside itself and raised above itself, elevation of spirit.

7. Finally consummated union, or of spiritual marriage, is the greatest which God can grant in this life, through which the soul is transformed into God and becomes one with God, in that manner as a vessel of water poured into the sea becomes one with the water of the sea. It is a state in which the soul is habitually conscious to itself of living the divine life, namely under a continuous divine influence which exercises itself in the innermost depth of its being and in all operations, whereby it happens that God is not only the object, but also shows Himself as the helper who produces them so that they truly are divine. Therefore it feels God living in itself, and itself living in God and through God. But in this union the powers are now not suspended, because, their sensibility now having been purified, they have been made capable of divine union, so that the will loves its God most peacefully, and the intellect knows rightly and attends to this union made in the center of the soul, in the manner as if someone were to gaze upon the sun and know its splendor without injury to the eyes. This union is permanent, so that the soul habitually enjoys the divine presence now joined to itself, and enjoys it in stable peace, which passions no longer disturb.

But God is accustomed to introduce into a firmer state of contemplation through a certain passive purgation of the soul, which He Himself infuses, and by which the soul is purified more from its imperfections, which impede contemplation, than it could effect by its own human manner of acting. It is a certain drawing of grace and divine light, but one which brings pain and obscurity, which God places in the soul while He finds its powers incapable of union, as not sufficiently separated from sensible consolation and material forms. And it is twofold:

a) sensitive aridity, the night of the senses, which is accustomed to precede the prayer of quiet, and endures until the soul is rendered fit for that grade of contemplation: it is a most troublesome withdrawal of sensible devotion, through which the soul is led to a certain alienation from all sensible pleasures, both earthly and spiritual;

b) spiritual aridity, the night of the mind, which is accustomed to precede simple union or even the union of espousal, and prepares for the last grades of contemplation and endures until the soul is rendered capable of divine union. It is a divine light by which God brings it about that the soul recognizes its own nothingness, and the soul sees itself in a certain terrible agony, and, recognizing its imperfections, therefore seems to itself expelled and abandoned by God, as ungrateful for benefits received; it believes all things done by itself to be worthy of punishments, and itself hateful to God; indeed it sometimes experiences a thousand temptations, the punishments of the damned, and divine abandonment.

X. Corollaries concerning aspiration and preparation for the more eminent gifts of God, first of all contemplation and mystical life.¹⁵ - From all that has been set forth above, the following conclusions are easily understood:

¹⁵ Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange in the periodical La Vie spirituelle, t. V.

1. Special and miraculous liberalities or communications, which are said to draw away from faith because they consist in distinct pieces of knowledge, are not to be desired, because they are extraordinary and therefore provide a handle for vain glory, curiosity, and illusion, and because they are not necessary for perfection nor do they sanctify. Hence they are most constantly to be rejected, "yet always with a spirit of humility and without any contempt, and always protesting before God that one wishes to serve Him in pure faith."¹⁶ For one act of charity is worth more than all visions.

¹⁶ St. Alphonsus, Pr. conf., n. 143.

2. The more eminent graces of the mystical life, as being uniform with faith and sanctifying, such as confused knowledges and divine touches which unite to God, are not to be rejected; hence of themselves it is licit to desire them and humbly seek them, especially by those persons who are already endowed with them, so that union with God may be perfected and love may receive new increases. For it is good for man and desirable to God, the ultimate end, to adhere to Him by the intellect through contemplation, and by the affection through excellent love. Hence he can also prepare and dispose himself for it, both by the progressive practice of affective prayer and recollection, and by the exercise of moral virtues by which the obstacles of contemplation are removed;¹⁷ yet he cannot merit nor effect it.

¹⁷ St. Thomas, II-II, q. 180, a. 2.

3. Nevertheless, for those persons who are not sufficiently prepared, it is safer only to desire perfection in general, and conformity to God's will; because they tend only altogether remotely to contemplation, but are not yet able to attain it.

4. Let the aspiration be pure, humble, discreet. Practically, it will be better to obey the Holy Spirit generously, to sweat with God's help in the works of perfection, never to judge oneself worthy of the grace of contemplation, so that if God should wish to raise one to contemplation, He may not find one unprepared.

5. The dispositions ordinarily required are enumerated: some at least confused and general knowledge of the contemplative life; - a strong soul; - silence and withdrawal; - mortification of body and spirit; - purity of heart; - simplicity of mind; - profound humility; - meditation; - study of acquiring the presence of God; - fervent charity.

6. Therefore very many moderns err who hold the graces of the contemplative and mystical life as extraordinary gifts, and consequently apply to them the rules which authors of the spiritual life hand down concerning these things. There is one spiritual life which begins from the purgative way, grows through the illuminative way, and is terminated in mystical union with God. To this all are called by a general and remote vocation; but by a proximate and individual vocation those who are found sufficiently disposed. Therefore that distrust which many nourish toward the mystical life is not legitimate.

The Contemplative life in its breadth designates the whole occupation of man, by reading, speaking, knowing, thinking, considering, meditating, and speculating; inasmuch as all these acts terminate in Contemplation. Contemplation therefore is the principal act of this life, to which meditation most closely approaches, and has been inserted, as Suarez notes here after D. Bonaventure, lib. 2. de orat. mentali, cap. 9. For when we undertake to investigate some divine truth, first we speak of it, read, or inquire: then we think it, consider it, and meditate upon it longer; finally the truth long meditated, when it suddenly presents itself to view, meditation passes into Contemplation, which we receive with great avidity of soul, we admire it with great delight; and we adhere to it with much admiration; so the Seraphic Doctor, here, after Richard, lib. 1. de Arca Myst. cap. 4.

Three therefore are the principal steps noted here, by which one ascends to Contemplation; namely the search for an unknown truth, the finding of the truth sought, and the intuition of the truth found; When this last is attained, the principal state of contemplation is apprehended, if we wish to speak theologically; for philosophically contemplation is taken for every act of the intellect, in which sense Aristotle says, 2. Metaph. textu 3. the end of contemplation is truth, and Cicero in libro 4. de finib. says, contemplation is the consideration and meditation of hidden things; so also he has it, lib. 1. academic. qq.

In the former sense Contemplation is defined by the Saintly Doctor here, dist. 1. It is the act of an unimpeded intellect, of a healed grace, directed to eternal spectacles, suspended with admiration, or according to Richard as cited by the Seraphic Doctor there: Contemplation is the free perspicacity of the mind, suspended in the spectacles of wisdom, with admiration.

In which definition the Seraphic Doctor commends four things supremely to the contemplative.

The first is the liberty of the Spirit, that it be not impeded by any earthly obstacle, but by a certain spontaneous motion and impulse be able to be carried more freely and more gladly through the eternal truths; and contemplate them to satiety, as far as is possible: Hence the mind ought to be unburdened of the care and solicitude of temporal things, and much more not to be embraced by the cords of sins.

The second is a perspicacious eye, capable of divine irradiation; whence the Saintly Doctor distinguishes from Richard a triple eye; The first is of the flesh, by which man sees the things that are outside himself; The second is of reason, by which he sees the things that are within himself: The third is the eye of contemplation, by which he sees above himself: This eye is as it were a certain spark of Divine cognition and image, residing in the apex of the soul; toward which the mind well purged, continually tending, thence as it were anticipates and foretastes eternal delights with wondrous delight, serenity, and security: of this eye the Bridegroom says in the Canticle cap. 4. you have wounded my heart with one of your eyes, as D. Bonaventure notes, here.

The third is, that the said eye be directed to the spectacles of wisdom: whence the Saintly Doctor infers that contemplation is not precisely an act of the intellect, but that an act of the will is also becoming. For Wisdom is the cognition of the true, exciting the will to a savory love, and the experimental taste of supernal sweetness: Hence those spectacles of wisdom, placed in the definition, are the cognition of the true, and the tasting of the good, whence Suarez notes, in the said cap. 9. that D. Bonaventure places the sum of contemplation in the will; which, if he understands it to consist in the will alone, is groundless; For the Saintly Doctor everywhere joins the intellectual inspection and the savory love: and here he concludes thus: The act therefore of contemplation includes two things, namely cognition, and savory love.

But if Suarez wishes the sum of contemplation to be in the will, from the mind of the Saintly Doctor, not precisely but principally, that is, to have its origin and increase from love, an act of the will; it is not against the Seraphic Doctor; who after the aforesaid words adds: and love adjoints cognition. But a little above he reports from the Lincolniensis, that wisdom arises from love, which bursts forth into the light of cognition and the savor of gustation, as light and flame burst forth from heat.

Fourth, what the Saintly Doctor requires for contemplation from the said definition, is the mental suspension with admiration; and this is so intrinsic to contemplation that D. Augustine lib. de spiritu, et anima, cap. 32. did not hesitate to define contemplation by that admiration, saying: Contemplation is the perspicuous and delightful admiration of truth. For as Richard well says, as cited by the Seraphic Doctor in the place cited. From the novelty of the thing, which is above our hope and our estimation, admiration arises; from admiration attention grows, from attention cognition, and from these the suspension of the mind. Whence as among the Philosophers there are two principles of science; admiration and experience; so in the theologian contemplating, admiration excites to a more attentive speculation, on the part of the intellect; but on the part of the will the experience of sweetness moves the intellect to a higher intuition of the truth; and then both powers are suspended, according to the saying of Job. My soul has chosen suspension.

This whole progress of contemplation is most excellently explained by way of the Aurora (Dawn) by the Seraphic Doctor from Richard, lib. 5. de Arca mystica, cap. 9. For the Aurora first glimmers with a certain dawning of light; being near the earth, as it were; as men still tender first perceive a certain dawning of grace. Then the aurora, raising itself a little higher, more shining, and suffused with a tawny color, flashes out, being not yet sufficiently segregated from the mire, or the slime of the earth; But the more it ascends, spreading itself the more broadly, and growing the more brilliantly splendid, it is elongated from the earth, until at length occupying the height of heaven it passes into the meridian splendor, and is suspended at the supreme apex of light, or Solstice; Richard therefore says there: Human intelligence, irradiated by the divine light, is suspended in the contemplation of intelligibles, while it is diffused in their admiration after the manner of the aurora, when it is always led to higher or more admirable things, the more and the more copiously it is dilated after the manner of the Aurora: Whence the more remote it becomes from the lowest things, the purer it is found in itself, and the subtler for the sublime things, etc.

As to the difference of this most excellent act from cogitation, meditation, and the other acts, whether preceding or subsequent; It must be noted that cogitation is the beginning of this exercise, and has its origin from the imagination, and most closely passes and terminates in meditation: For when we first transmit some thing from the external sense to the internal, or awaken it long stored in the phantasy itself, the agent intellect is wont to forge for itself a more spiritual idea of this thing; this idea, however, since it is still indeterminate, and wandering hither and thither through the intellect, can be called Cogitation, which therefore Richard defines in the place cited, cap. 3. et 4. The mind's regard prone to evagation, whence the less it is subjected to reason, the more it arises from the imagination, which communicates to it somewhat of its materiality; whence with a slow foot it wanders through every byway, without regard for arriving at its end; as Richard says in the said cap. 3. On the contrary, contemplation with a free foot, wherever its impetus bears it, is carried around with wondrous agility; and this is the principal difference of these acts, in which is included that the one act holds the place of principle; the other of the middle.

But when either a single or a multiple cogitation assails the mind; it is necessary that reason forthwith arrest it, and vigilantly apply it to the intended end, and thus make it pass into meditation; otherwise cogitations will tumultuate among themselves, and distract the mind, which D. Gregory most excellently explains, lib. 1. Moral. as cited by the Seraphic Doctor, here, dist. 3. where he thus has it: Cogitations are subjected to reason after the manner of handmaids, because if Reason for a moment depart from the house of the mind, the clamor of cogitations multiplies itself, as it were in the absence of the mistress, like a gabbling troop of handmaids; but as soon as reason has returned to the mind, forthwith the tumultuous confusion restrains itself, and as it were the handmaids quietly restrain themselves for the enjoined work.

But the cogitation, thus formed by reason, takes on the name and nature of meditation; whence this is born from reason, as that from the imagination; and it is the attentive and continued consideration of the thing thought; which at length migrates into contemplation; as was said above. Hence the Saintly Doctor notes from Richard, cit. cap. 3. that there are three things in the soul which variously conduce to contemplation: These are Imagination, Reason, and Intelligence: the first holds the lowest seat of the soul, the second the middle, and the third the supreme, immediately subjacent to God: whence as God beholds all things together in the most simple act, so that act by which one approaches him more, more clearly and more simply comprehends the objects of the other acts inferior to itself: hence contemplation, the act of intelligence, more clearly comprehends the objects of the imagination and reason than they can be comprehended by their own powers; expanding as it does the bosom of the mind immensely, and at the same time sharpening the keenness of the soul for penetrating; as the Saintly Doctor has, loco citato, from Richard, in the said cap. 3. For through the intelligence the bosom of the mind is expanded immensely, and the keenness of the contemplating soul is sharpened, that it may be capable of comprehending many things, and perspicacious for penetrating subtle things.

That you may understand this, be aware that the mental vision, as also the corporal, is (as far as it can be conceived) after the manner of a pyramid, dilating itself on the one part, while on the other it forms the point; so that in the proportion in which it penetrates the more hidden objects, with equal breadth it comprehends more in ascending; which Richard understands, loco citato, while he says as cited by the Seraphic Doctor dicta, dist. 3. Whence how widely the ray of contemplation expands itself, which illuminates all; and in a certain manner Contemplation extends itself under one ray of vision to innumerable things.

Speculation is not rarely confounded with Contemplation, because each is of intelligence; they differ, however, as the Saintly Doctor teaches, loco citato, and with him Suarez, cit. num. 5. For speculation, as D. Augustine says, lib. 15. de Trinit. cap. 3. is said when a thing is seen not in itself, but in its mirror, or enigma: but contemplation occurs when the truth is seen without any envelope, or veil of shadows, in its own purity, as Richard says, as cited by the Saintly Doctor, loco citato.

Speculation therefore is said, not from specula (watchtower), as Suarez notes; loco citato, because creatures in this world are mirrors, in which and through which we speculate the eternal truths, whence D. Paul, 1. Cor. 13. says: in this life we speculari the glory of the Lord.

Yet these mirrors of Creatures, although they are called enigmas, do not have such opacity that they do not flash out with much light, and pour and temper it upon the eyes of those speculating: Of these mirrors the Lincolniensis treats most excellently, as cited by the Saintly Doctor, loco citato, saying, that after they are received in the mind, the divine and as it were solar rays falling upon it from the fountain of light, they become so much more many, bright, and clear; that he contemplating may see lucidly the truth contemplated in it with the eyes; and according to this part it is true contemplation: But on that part by which the said mirrors pour back the light falling into them upon those who are capable of it, and the truth is thus seen with less clearness, it is rather speculation: He exemplifies this by a material mirror, which so tempers the light of the resplendent sun, that the weaker eye, which cannot look upon the sun itself, sees it proportioned to itself in the mirror.

Finally, as cogitation passes into meditation, and meditation sometimes into speculation, sometimes and more perfectly into contemplation, so contemplation passes into the open vision, reserved for the fatherland; whence between this and that there is the difference; that vision is not only simple, but the open and clear intuition of the thing, as it is in itself: But contemplation is the simple intelligence of the thing, as far as is possible according to the capacity of each in this life.

Whence the Seraphic Doctor concludes that all the said acts differ according to the clearer or less clear aspect of God; and as among those cogitation holds the lowest place, so for this life contemplation holds the supreme seat; yet vision in the fatherland surpasses it, as was said: The Saintly Doctor confirms this from Gregory, lib. 5. Moral. cap. ult. where he says: The active works of life pass away with the body; but the delights of the Contemplative life grow better toward the end.

We suppose above certain acts of the contemplative life, by which one ascends gradually to the chiefest Gift of this life, which consists in the very act of contemplation, as it is distinguished from the others.

Now the degrees of Contemplation are certain steps of progress and advancement within the same act of intellectual thought and savorous love, by which God is apprehended under the aspect of the True and the Good. So the Holy Doctor, at the place cited.

The difficulty, however, is whether such increments of contemplation are given, by which the mind gradually arrives at another summit, or apex, of perfect contemplation; and it seems from what has already been said that they are not: because we considered contemplation above as a simple act of the intelligence viewing all things clearly at once, as far as can be done in the condition of this life.

Yet I assert here with the Seraphic Doctor that several degrees of contemplation distinct from one another are given, aiding the intellect and the affect toward perfectly contemplating God.

It is proved by the Holy Doctor from the authority of D. Gregory, book XXII. Morals, chap. XIV, where he says: Steps are called increments of virtues, distinctly handed down by the Saints; and a little below he proves the necessity of these, saying: No one, abandoning what is lowest, suddenly becomes highest, for to obtain the merit of perfection the mind must arrive at the height, as it were, by certain steps of ascent.

And although these may be understood of the comparison of virtues among themselves; yet since those are acquired better and more securely in contemplating; the higher we advance in contemplation, the more abundantly and intensely are we strengthened in the virtues; whence the degrees of the Virtues lean upon the progress of contemplation.

It is confirmed by the Seraphic Doctor in the same place, by that Psalm LXXXIII: they shall go from virtue to virtue, until the God of gods be seen in Sion, where, with respect to the vision which perfects and consummates contemplation, he describes the gradual acquisition of the virtues.

It is proved secondly by D. Bonavent. from Psalm XLVII: God is known in her degrees, when he shall receive her, namely contemplation, as D. S. explains according to the LXX.

It is proved thirdly by the Holy Doctor, from Hugh, cited here, who, speaking of the degrees of contemplation, has thus: the more the ascent grows, the more the knowledge grows, until the intellectual eye be illuminated and strengthened more and more, and the mental affection be purified and inflamed more, etc.

This the Linconiensis egregiously confirms and explains at the Seraphic Doctor's place, at the place cited, where he uses this example thus: just as the eyes of the flesh, weaker at first, receive the light of the sun as obscure, and more diffused upon colors; then, more strengthened, they receive it upon colors of middling hue, and afterward, vision fortified, they receive more of it super-fulgent upon white colors; then indeed, health further increased, they receive it poured upon shining colors, as in mirrors; finally, the eyes perfectly healed, they receive the solar ray, not diffused upon anything, but pure in itself, etc. Afterward he pursues this example, applying it thus: so also the eye of the mind, weaker, must first be accustomed to beholding the light of the sun of the intelligence in grosser things, then in subtler ones, until at last, from the very giving of the light multipliedly diffused upon it in many ways, it be extended and restored into the simple ray itself.

Where mark that the act of the intelligence is here treated of, when he says: the intelligence in grosser things, etc., so as to exclude the acts of reason or of imagination, such as thought, meditation, etc. For after meditating, the thing sought passes from reason into intelligence; first there flashes some twilight of light, which, growing in the proportion in which the keenness of the intellect is strengthened and refined, at length shines forth into the perfect day.

Nor does it stand against these that contemplation has a simple and total intuition at once and at one time of all those things which are subjected to its view: for that totality is not intensive but extensive, comprehending more or fewer objects together, though more clearly or more obscurely according to the degree of its perfection: for if such intuition had all its intension, it would follow that the Vision adds nothing to contemplation; which is false, as is evident of itself.

As to the quality and number of the degrees, they are handed down in divers ways by the Seraphic Doctor according to the various opinions of the Fathers.

And first of all Dionysius, according to the expositions of the Linconiensis, of Hugh, and of the Vercellensis, teaches that in the well-ordered Human mind, as also in the Angelic, there are given middle, first, and supreme illuminations; and each of these is subdivided into three orders: so that as in the angelic Hierarchy there are nine orders, so too let there be as many degrees of Contemplation in the well-ordered mind; For since this must be ordered to three things, namely to exterior, inferior, and superior things; it is ordered to exterior things by a certain comparison to the Angels, Archangels, and Principalities: for those things are announced by simple apprehensions without any great hope of commodity or incommodity; as it is proper to messengers to announce. To inferior things the mind is well ordered according to the three orders of the middle Hierarchy, namely the Powers, Virtues, and Dominations; For this Hierarchy obtains the dominion of reconciling things as they are in themselves according to the free motions of the will, according to the exigency of the natural and gratuitous virtues, and finally according to the authoritative commands of free will, as this Seraphic Doctor says. Finally the human intelligence is ordered to superior things, and to these belong the Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim, who are the Angels of the supreme Hierarchy of the mind: For the Thrones are as it were the benches, or seats, of God, as this Holy Doctor says from Hugh, whence they receive God coming to them; as also the mind, carried up to this degree and order of contemplation, receives divine super-arrivals and inmissions from above: but Cherubim signifies the attraction and, as it were, the co-walking of the intellect and the affect toward the divine truth and goodness, while the intellect, attaining the apex of its whole faculty, at length surpasses the affect; and so it is consummated in this order; whence the Cherubim are named from knowledge on account of this intellectual super-excess. The Seraphim indeed, on the contrary, are borne into God by super-affectuous sighs and shining fervors, the affect holding the apex of this Order and far surpassing the intellect; while the Soul, exhausted amid the most chaste embraces of its divine spouse, is wholly hastened, kindled, and in a manner transmuted into Him.

When the contemplative mind shall have attained this degree, it will be able to exclaim well with the spouse: He set order in me Charity. For from this the inundation of the divine light is transmitted orderly into all the inferior powers and acts of the soul, and to each its portion of the supernatural light is distributed for purging, illuminating, and perfecting; just as from the supreme Order of the Angels copious light is received immediately from God; and is diffused into the others according to the capacity of each. See the Seraphic Doctor treating these things at greater length and illustrating them with beautiful opinions of the Fathers.

Otherwise indeed, and a little more lowly, the Holy Doctor gathers in art. 1. the degrees of Contemplation from Richard, book 1. chap. 6. so that it begin from the imagination, and in it constitute the first degree, and this according to the order of execution; For as the same Richard says, of Contempl. book 4. chap. 5. We must begin from the last things, and raise our knowledge's promotion little by little, and by the knowledge of exterior things ascend to the cognition of invisible things. For when you shall have apprehended the science of exterior things, and had your senses exercised in their doctrine, you must ascend to higher things, and acquire the science of spiritual creatures: This is Richard at the Seraphic Doctor, at the place cited.

Therefore the first degree according to this reckoning is the Imagination, not that bestial one by which we bear species confusedly and scamper hither and thither without any utility, ruminating and revolving those things which we have previously seen; but it is a certain rational imagination, obedient to the intellect and ordered to it, by which we inquire nothing with mental investigation, but we admire with delight, and with a certain suspension of the imagination itself, those things which we have previously seen, or now see, while we suspect them to be beautiful, lovely, and many; so the Holy Doctor, in the said art. 2.

The second degree is founded in the imagination, but formed by reason, which ransacks, ponders, and wonders at the thing conceived there according to its utility, order, and condition: this degree is distinguished from the prior one, which stands in pure imagination, though vilely, as has been said. For as the Author de spiritu et anima has it, chap. 12. the imagination does not ascend to reason, but remaining below it can somewhat draw it down, and as it were from afar shows certain things to which it cannot arrive. Hence that thought, borne up from the imagination to the intent of reason, makes the second degree of Contemplation.

The third degree is formed and founded in reason itself, though uprooted from the imagination, and it comes about when, by the similitude of visible things, we are lifted up to the speculation of invisible things, as Richard says, book 1. chap. 6. It differs from the prior one, in that here the intellect tends upward to the investigation of invisible things; there indeed it leans rather downward upon the imagination, digging out more deeply the idea conceived in it and building it up in itself; wherefore this degree is more perfect than the preceding, in which the tension toward superior things prevails over the propensity toward inferior things. See Richard at the Holy Doctor, here.

The fourth degree is segregated in every way from the imagination, and now as it were dwelling in the heights; when, temporal things removed, not to say corporeal ones, we are occupied in the contemplation of celestial spirits, and rise higher, purifying the mind by use and by the mental affectuation of eternal things; whence here for the first time the pure intelligence intervenes, which works by itself and contemplates as it were by a species, as Richard says, in the same place.

The fifth degree, proceeding more intimately into the interior desert and penetrating the solitude of the divine arcana, transcends Reason: here ratiocination and every investigation, which is an act of the mind, fails: of this degree Richard, cited, says: Our contemplation then truly ascends above reason when the mind by an elevation of mind believes that which human capacity transcends its metes, and it must be judged above reason, yet not beyond reason, when human reason cannot stand against what is discerned by the keenness of the intelligence. The perfection of this degree, and its excellence before the others, consists in this, that it leaps over the limits of reason; whence D. Doctor observes here, from Richard, that some things are below reason, such as those which are perceived by corporeal sense; some indeed are alongside reason, as those which we inquire into by discourse: but above Reason are those things which either become known to us by revelation alone, or shine forth by a supernatural irradiation in such wise that neither corporeal sense nor reason can in any way reach them.