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All the doctrine whereof I intend to treat in this
Ascent of Mount Carmel is included in the following
stanzas, and in them is also described the manner of
ascending to the summit of the Mount, which is the
high estate of perfection which we here call union of
the soul with God. And because I must continually
base upon them that which I shall say, I have desired
to set them down here together, to the end that all
the substance of that which is to be written may be
seen and comprehended together; although it will be
fitting to set down each stanza separately before
expounding it, and likewise the lines of each stanza,
according as the matter and the exposition require.
The poem, then, runs as follows:[65]
STANZAS[66]
Wherein the soul sings of the happy chance which
it had in passing through the dark night of faith, in
detachment and purgation of itself, to union with the
Beloved.
1. On a dark night, Kindled[67] in love with
yearnings
-- oh, happy chance! --
I went forth without being observed,
My house being now at rest.[68]
2. In darkness and secure,
By the secret ladder, disguised
-- oh, happy chance! --
In darkness and in concealment,
My house being now at rest.
3. In the happy night,
In secret, when none saw me,
Nor I beheld aught,
Without light or guide, save that which burned in my
heart.
4. This light guided me
More surely than the light of noonday,
To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting
me
-- A place where none appeared.
5. Oh, night that guided me,
Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover,
Lover transformed in the Beloved!
6. Upon my flowery breast,
Kept wholly for himself alone,
There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him,
And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.
7. The breeze blew from the turret
As I parted his locks;
With his gentle hand he wounded my neck
And caused all my senses to be suspended.
8. I remained, lost in oblivion;[69]
My face I reclined on the Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself,
Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.
PROLOGUE
In order to expound and describe this dark night,
through which the soul passes in order to attain to
the Divine light of the perfect union of the love of
God, as far as is possible in this life, it would be
necessary to have illumination of knowledge and
experience other and far greater than mine; for this
darkness and these trials, both spiritual and
temporal, through which happy souls are wont to pass
in order to be able to attain to this high estate of
perfection, are so numerous and so profound that
neither does human knowledge suffice for the
understanding of them, nor experience for the
description of them; for only he that passes this way
can understand it, and even he cannot describe it.
2. Therefore, in order to say a little about this
dark night, I shall trust neither to experience nor
to knowledge, since both may fail and deceive; but,
while not omitting to make such use as I can of these
two things, I shall avail myself, in all that, with
the Divine favour, I have to say, or at the least, in
that which is most important and dark to the
understanding, of Divine Scripture; for, if we guide
ourselves by this, we shall be unable to stray, since
He Who speaks therein is the Holy Spirit. And if
aught I stray, whether through my imperfect
understanding of that which is said in it or of
matters uncollected with it, it is not my intention
to depart from the sound sense and doctrine of our
Holy Mother the Catholic Church; for in such a case I
submit and resign myself wholly, not only to her
command, but to whatever better judgment she may
pronounce concerning it.
3. To this end I have been moved, not by any
possibility that I see in myself of accomplishing so
arduous a task, but by the confidence which I have in
the Lord that He will help me to say something to
relieve the great necessity which is experienced by
many souls, who, when they set out upon the road of
virtue, and Our Lord desires to bring them into this
dark night that they may pass through it to Divine
union, make no progress. At times this is because
they have no desire to enter it or to allow
themselves to be led into it; at other times, because
they understand not themselves and lack competent and
alert directors[70] who will guide them to the
summit.
And so it is sad to see many souls to whom God
gives both aptitude and favour with which to make
progress (and who, if they would take courage, could
attain to this high estate), remaining in an
elementary stage[71] of communion with God, for want
of will, or knowledge, or because there is none who
will lead them in the right path or teach them how to
get away from these beginnings. And at length,
although Our Lord grants them such favour as to make
them to go onward without this hindrance or that,
they arrive at their goal very much later, and with
greater labour, yet with less merit, because they
have not conformed themselves to God, and allowed
themselves to be brought freely into the pure and
sure road of union. For, although it is true that God
is leading them, and that He can lead them without
their own help, they will not allow themselves to be
led; and thus they make less progress, because they
resist Him Who is leading them, and they have less
merit, because they apply not their will, and on this
account they suffer more.
For these are souls who, instead of committing
themselves to God and making use of His help, rather
hinder God by the indiscretion of their actions or by
their resistance; like children who, when their
mothers desire to carry them in their arms, start
stamping and crying, and insist upon being allowed to
walk, with the result that they can make no progress;
and, if they advance at all, it is only at the pace
of a child.
4. Wherefore, to the end that all, whether
beginners or proficients, may know how to commit
themselves to God's guidance, when His Majesty
desires to lead them onward, we shall give
instruction and counsel, by His help, so that they
may be able to understand His will, or, at the least,
allow Him to lead them. For some confessors and
spiritual fathers, having no light and experience
concerning these roads, are wont to hinder and harm
such souls rather than to help them on the road; they
are like the builders of Babel, who, when told to
furnish suitable material, gave and applied other
very different material, because they understood not
the language, and thus nothing was done.
Wherefore, it is a difficult and troublesome thing
at such seasons for a soul not to understand itself
or to find none who understands it. For it will come
to pass that God will lead the soul by a most lofty
path of dark contemplation and aridity, wherein it
seems to be lost, and, being thus full of darkness
and trials, constraints and temptations, will meet
one who will speak to it like Job's comforters, and
say that it is suffering from melancholy, or low
spirits, or a morbid disposition, or that it may have
some hidden sin, and that it is for this reason that
God has forsaken it. Such comforters are wont to
declare immediately that that soul must have been
very evil, since such things as these are befalling
it.
5. And there will likewise be those who tell the
soul to retrace its steps, since it is finding no
pleasure or consolation in the things of God as it
did aforetime. And in this way they double the poor
soul's trials; for it may well be that the greatest
affliction which it is feeling is that of the
knowledge of its own miseries, thinking that it sees
itself, more clearly than daylight, to be full of
evils and sins, for God gives it that light of
knowledge in that night of contemplation, as we shall
presently show. And, when the soul finds someone
whose opinion agrees with its own, and who says that
these things must be due to its own fault, its
affliction and trouble increase infinitely and are
wont to become more grievous than death.
And, not content with this, such confessors,
thinking that these things proceed from sin, make
these souls go over their lives and cause them to
make many general confessions, and crucify them
afresh; not understanding that this may quite well
not be the time for any of such things, and that
their penitents should be left in the state of
purgation which God gives them, and be comforted and
encouraged to desire it until God be pleased to
dispose otherwise; for until that time, no matter
what the souls themselves may do and their confessors
may say, there is no remedy for them.
6. This, with the Divine favour, we shall consider
hereafter, and also how the soul should conduct
itself at such a time, and how the confessor must
treat it, and what signs there will be whereby it may
be known if this is the purgation of the soul; and,
in such case, whether it be of sense or of spirit
(which is the dark night whereof we speak), and how
it may be known if it be melancholy or some other
imperfection with respect to sense or to spirit. For
there may be some souls who will think, or whose
confessors will think, that God is leading them along
this road of the dark night of spiritual purgation,
whereas they may possibly be suffering only from some
of the imperfections aforementioned. And, again,
there are many souls who think that they have no
aptitude for prayer, when they have very much; and
there are others who think that they have much when
they have hardly any.
7. There are other souls who labour and weary
themselves to a piteous extent, and yet go backward,
seeking profit in that which is not profitable, but
is rather a hindrance; and there are still others
who, by remaining at rest and in quietness, continue
to make great progress. There are others who are
hindered and disturbed and make no progress, because
of the very consolations and favours that God is
granting them in order that they may make progress.
And there are many other things on this road that
befall those who follow it, both joys and afflictions
and hopes and griefs: some proceeding from the spirit
of perfection and others from imperfection. Of all
these, with the Divine favour, we shall endeavour to
say something, so that each soul who reads this may
be able to see something of the road that he ought to
follow, if he aspire to attain to the summit of this
Mount.
8. And, since this introduction relates to the dark
night through which the soul must go to God, let not
the reader marvel if it seem to him somewhat dark
also. This, I believe, will be so at the beginning
when he begins to read; but, as he passes on, he will
find himself understanding the first part better,
since one part will explain another. And then, if he
read it a second time, I believe it will seem clearer
to him and the instruction will appear sounder. And
if any persons find themselves disagreeing with this
instruction, it will be due to my ignorance and poor
style; for in itself the matter is good and of the
first importance. But I think that, even were it
written in a more excellent and perfect manner than
it is, only the minority would profit by it, for we
shall not here set down things that are very moral
and delectable[72] for all spiritual persons who
desire to travel toward God by pleasant and
delectable ways, but solid and substantial
instruction, as well suited to one kind of person as
to another, if they desire to pass to the detachment
of spirit which is here treated.
9. Nor is my principal intent to address all, but
rather certain persons of our sacred Order of Mount
Carmel of the primitive observance, both friars and
nuns -- since they have desired me to do so -- to
whom God is granting the favour of setting them on
the road to this Mount; who, as they are already
detached from the temporal things of this world, will
better understand the instruction concerning
detachment of spirit. |