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Just as images are of great benefit for remembering
God and the saints, and for moving the will to
devotion when they are used in the ordinary way, as
is fitting, so they will lead to great error if, when
supernatural happenings come to pass in connection
with them, the soul should not be able to conduct
itself as is fitting for its journey to God.
For one of the means by which the devil lays hold
on incautious souls, with great ease, and obstructs
the way of spiritual truth for them, is the use of
extraordinary and supernatural happenings, of which
he gives examples by means of images, both the
material and corporeal images used by the Church, and
also those which he is wont to fix in the fancy in
relation to such or such a saint, or an image of him,
transforming himself into an angel of light that he
may deceive.
For in those very means which we possess for our
relief and help the astute devil contrives to hide
himself in order to catch us when we are least
prepared. Wherefore it is concerning good things that
the soul that is good must ever have the greatest
misgivings, for evil things bear their own testimony
with them.
2. Hence, in order to avoid all the evils which
may happen to the soul in this connection, which are
its being hindered from soaring upward to God, or its
using images in an unworthy and ignorant manner, or
its being deceived by them through natural or
supernatural means, all of which are things that we
have touched upon above; and in order likewise to
purify the rejoicing of the will in them and by means
of them to lead the soul to God, for which reason the
Church recommends their use, I desire here to set
down only one warning, which will suffice for
everything; and this warning is that, since images
serve us as a motive for invisible things, we must
strive to set the motive and the affection and the
rejoicing of our will only upon that which in fact
they represent.
Let the faithful soul, then, be careful that, when
he sees the image, he desire not that his senses
should be absorbed by it, whether the image be
corporeal or imaginary, whether beautifully made,
whether richly adorned, whether the devotion that it
causes be of sense or of spirit, whether it produce
supernatural manifestations or no.
The soul must on no account set store by these
accidents, nor even regard them, but must raise up
its mind from the image to that which it represents,
centering the sweetness and rejoicing of its will,
together with the prayer and devotion of its spirit,
upon God or upon the saint who is being invoked; for
that which belongs to the living reality and to the
spirit should not be usurped by sense and by the
painted object.
If the soul do this, it will not be deceived, for
it will set no store by anything that the image may
say to it, nor will it occupy its sense or its spirit
in such a way that they cannot travel freely to God,
nor will it place more confidence in one image than
in another. And an image which would cause the soul
devotion by supernatural means will now do so more
abundantly, since the soul will now go with its
affections directly to God.
For, whensoever God grants these and other favours,
He does so by inclining the affection of the joy of
the will to that which is invisible, and this He
wishes us also to do, by annihilating the power and
sweetness of the faculties with respect to these
visible things of sense. |