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There is another way in which God awakens the
soul, and which, although in some respects it seems a
greater favour than the others, may also be more
perilous. For this reason I will spend a short time
in describing it.
This awakening of the soul is effected by means of
locutions, which are of many kinds.[8] Some of them
seem to come from without; others from the innermost
depths of the soul; others from its higher part;
while others, again, are so completely outside the
soul that they can be heard with the ears, and seem
to be uttered by a human voice. Sometimes -- often,
indeed -- this may be a fancy, especially in persons
who are melancholy -- I mean, are affected by real
melancholy -- or have feeble imaginations.
Of persons of these two kinds no notice should be
taken, in my view, even if they say they see or hear
or are given to understand things, nor should one
upset them by telling them that their experiences
come from the devil. One should listen to them as one
would to sick persons; and the prioress, or the
confessor, or whatever person they confide in, should
advise them to pay no heed to the matter, because the
service of God does not consist in things like these,
over which many have been deceived by the devil,
although this may not be so with them. One should
humour such people so as not to distress them
further. If one tells them they are suffering from
melancholy, there will be no end to it. They will
simply swear they see and hear things, and really
believe that they do.
The real solution is to see that such people have
less time for prayer, and also that, as far as is
possible, they attach no importance to these fancies.
For the devil is apt to take advantage of the
infirmity of these souls, to the injury of others, if
not to their own as well. Both with infirm and with
healthy souls there is invariably cause for
misgivings about these things until it becomes clear
what kind of spirit is responsible. I believe, too,
that it is always better for them to dispense with
such things at first, for, if they are of God,
dispensing with them will help us all the more to
advance, since, when put to the proof in this way,
they will tend to increase. Yet the soul should not
be allowed to become depressed or disquieted, for it
really cannot help itself.
Returning now to what I was saying about locutions,
these may come from God, in any of the ways I have
mentioned, or they may equally well come from the
devil or from one's own imagination. I will describe,
if I can, with the Lord's help, the signs by which
these locutions differ from one another and when they
are dangerous. For there are many people given to
prayer who experience them, and I would not have you
think you are doing wrong, sisters, whether or no you
give them credence, when they are only for your own
benefit, to comfort you or to warn you of your
faults.
In such cases it matters little from whom they
proceed or if they are only fancies. But of one thing
I will warn you: do not think that, even if your
locutions come from God, you will for that reason be
any the better. After all, He talked a great deal
with the Pharisees: any good you may gain will depend
upon how you profit by what you hear. Unless it
agrees strictly with the Scriptures, take no more
notice of it than you would if it came from the devil
himself. The words may, in fact, come only from your
weak imagination, but they must be taken as a
temptation against things pertaining to the Faith and
must therefore invariably be resisted so that they
may gradually cease; and cease they will, because
they will have little power of their own.
To return, then, to our first point: whether they
come from within, from above or from without, has
nothing to do with their coming from God. The surest
signs that one can have of their doing this are, in
my opinion, as follows.
The first and truest is the sense of power
and authority which they bear with them, both in
themselves and in the actions which follow them. I
will explain myself further. A soul is experiencing
all the interior disturbances and tribulations which
have been described, and all the aridity and darkness
of the understanding. A single word of this kind --
just a "Be not troubled" -- is sufficient to calm it.
No other word need be spoken; a great light comes to
it; and all its trouble is lifted from it, although
it had been thinking that, if the whole world, and
all the learned men in the world, were to combine to
give it reasons for not being troubled, they could
not relieve it from its distress, however hard they
might strive to do so.
Or a soul is distressed because its confessor, and
others, have told it that what it has is a spirit
sent by the devil, and it is full of fear. Yet that
single word which it hears: "It is I, fear not,"[9]
takes all its fear from it, and it is most
marvellously comforted, and believes that no one will
ever be able to make it feel otherwise. Or it is
greatly exercised because of some important piece of
business and it has no idea how this will turn out.
It is then given to understand that it must be, and
all will turn out well; and it acquires a new
confidence and is no longer troubled. And so with
many other things.
The second sign is that a great tranquillity
dwells in the soul, which becomes peacefully and
devoutly recollected, and ready to sing praises to
God. Oh, Lord, if there is such power in a word sent
by one of Thy messengers (for they say that, in this
Mansion, at least, such words are uttered, not by the
Lord Himself, but by some angel), what power wilt
Thou not leave in the soul that is bound to Thee, as
art Thou to it, by love.
The third sign is that these words do not
vanish from the memory for a very long time: some,
indeed, never vanish at all. Words which we hear on
earth -- I mean, from men, however weighty and
learned they may be -- we do not bear so deeply
engraven upon our memory, nor, if they refer to the
future, do we give credence to them as we do to these
locutions. For these last impress us by their
complete certainty, in such a way that, although
sometimes they seem quite impossible of fulfilment,
and we cannot help wondering if they will come true
or not, and although our understanding may hesitate
about it, yet within the soul itself there is a
certainty which cannot be overcome.
It may seem to the soul that everything is moving
in the contrary direction to what it had been led to
expect, and yet, even if many years go by, it never
loses its belief that, though God may use other means
incomprehensible to men, in the end what He has said
will come true; as in fact it does. None the less, as
I say, the soul is distressed when it sees things
going badly astray. It may be some time since it
heard the words; and both their working within it and
the certainty which it had at the time that they came
from God have passed away. So these doubts arise, and
the soul wonders if the whole thing came from the
devil, or can have been the work of the imagination.
Yet at the time it had no such doubts and it would
have died in defence of their veracity.
But, as I say, all these imaginings must be put
into our minds by the devil in order to distress us
and make us fearful, especially if the matter is one
in which obeying the locutions will bring others many
blessings, or produce good works tending greatly to
the honour and service of God but presenting
considerable difficulties. What will the devil not do
in this case by encouraging such misgivings? At the
very least he will weaken the soul's faith, for it is
most harmful not to believe that God is powerful and
can do works which are incomprehensible to our
understanding.
Despite all these conflicts, despite the assertions
of some (I refer to confessors) that these locutions
are pure nonsense; and despite all the unfortunate
happenings which may persuade the soul that they
cannot come true, there still remains within it such
a living spark of conviction that they will come true
(whence this arises I cannot tell) that, though all
other hopes may be dead, this spark of certainty
could not fail to remain alive, even if the soul
wished it to die. And in the end, as I have said, the
Lord's word is fulfilled, and the soul is so happy
and glad that it would like to do nothing but praise
His Majesty everlastingly -- much more, however,
because it has seen His assurances come true than
because of the occurrence itself, even though this
may be of very great consequence to it.
I do not know why it is, but the soul is so anxious
for these assurances to be proved true that it would
not, I think, feel it so much if it were itself
caught in the act of lying -- as though it could do
anything more in the matter than repeat what is said
to it! In this connection a certain person used
continually to recall what happened to the prophet
Jonas, when he feared that Ninive was not to be
destroyed.[10] Of course, as the locutions come from
the Spirit of God, it is right that we should have
this trust in Him, and desire that He should never be
thought false, since He is Supreme Truth. Great,
therefore, is the joy of one who, after a thousand
vicissitudes and in the most difficult circumstances,
sees His word come true; such a person may himself
have to suffer great trials on that account, but he
would rather do this than that what he holds the Lord
most certainly told him should not come to pass. Not
everybody, perhaps, will have this weakness -- if
weakness it is, for I cannot myself condemn it as
wrong.
If the locutions come from the imagination, none of
these signs occur, nor is there any certainty or
peace or interior consolation. It might, however,
happen (and I even know of a few people to whom it
has happened) that, when a person is deeply absorbed
in the Prayer of Quiet and in spiritual sleep (for
some, because of the weakness of their constitution,
or of their imagination, or for some other reason,
are so entirely carried out of themselves in this act
of deep recollection, that they are unconscious of
everything external, and all their senses are in such
a state of slumber that they are like a person asleep
-- at times, indeed, they may even be asleep), he
thinks that the locutions come to him in a kind of
dream, and sees things and believes that these things
are of God, and the effects of these locutions
resemble those of a dream. It may also happen that,
when such a person asks something of Our Lord with a
great love, he thinks that the voices are telling him
what he wants to be told; this does in fact sometimes
happen. But anyone who has much experience of
locutions coming from God will not, I think, be
deceived in this way by the imagination.
The devil's locutions are more to be feared than
those which come from the imagination; but, if the
locutions are accompanied by the signs already
described, one may be very confident that they are of
God, although not to such an extent that, if what is
said is of great importance and involves some action
on the part of the hearer, or matters affecting a
third person, one should do anything about it, or
consider doing anything, without taking the advice of
a learned confessor, a man of clear insight and a
servant of God, even though one may understand the
locutions better and better and it may become evident
that they are of God. For this is His Majesty's will,
so by carrying it out we are not failing to do what
He commands: He has told us that we are to put our
confessor in His place, even when it cannot be
doubted that the words are His. If the matter is a
difficult one, these words will help to give us
courage and Our Lord will speak to the confessor and
if such is His pleasure will make him recognize the
work of His spirit; if He does not, we have no
further obligations. I consider it very dangerous for
a person to do anything but what he has been told to
do and to follow his own opinion in this matter; so I
admonish you, sisters, in Our Lord's name, never to
act thus.
There is another way in which the Lord speaks to the
soul, which for my own part I hold to be very
certainly genuine, and that is by a kind of
intellectual vision, the nature of which I will
explain later. So far down in the depths of the soul
does this contact take place, so clearly do the words
spoken by the Lord seem to be heard with the soul's
own faculty of hearing, and so secretly are they
uttered, that the very way in which the soul
understands them, together with the effects produced
by the vision itself, convinces it and makes it
certain that no part in the matter is being played by
the devil. The wonderful effects it produces are
sufficient to make us believe this; at least one is
sure that the locutions do not proceed from the
imagination, and, if one reflects upon it, one can
always be certain of this, for the following reasons.
The first reason is that some locutions are very much
clearer than others. The genuine locution is so clear
that, even if it consists of a long exhortation, the
hearer notices the omission of a single syllable, as
well as the phraseology which is used; but in
locutions which are created fancifully by the
imagination the voice will be less clear and the
words less distinct, they will be like something
heard in a half-dream.
The second reason is that often the soul has not been
thinking of what it hears -- I mean that the voice
comes unexpectedly, sometimes even during a
conversation, although it frequently has reference to
something that was passing quickly through the mind
or to what one was previously thinking of. But often
it refers to things which one never thought would or
could happen, so that the imagination cannot possibly
have invented them, and the soul cannot be deceived
about things it has not desired or wished for or that
have never been brought to its notice.
The third reason is that in genuine locutions the
soul seems to be hearing something, whereas in
locutions invented by the imagination someone seems
to be composing bit by bit what the soul wishes to
hear.
The fourth reason is that there is a great difference
in the words themselves: in a genuine locution one
single word may contain a world of meaning such as
the understanding alone could never put rapidly into
human language.
The fifth reason is that frequently, not only can
words be heard, but, in a way which I shall never be
able to explain, much more can be understood than the
words themselves convey and this without any further
utterance. Of this way of understanding I shall say
more elsewhere; it is a very subtle thing, for which
Our Lord should be praised. Some people (especially
one person with experience of these things, and no
doubt others also) have been very dubious about this
way of understanding locutions and about the
differences between them, and have been quite unable
to get the matter straight. I know that this person
has thought it all over very carefully, because the
Lord has granted her this favour very frequently
indeed; her most serious doubt, which used to occur
when she first experienced it, was whether she was
not imagining the whole thing. When locutions come
from the devil their source can be more quickly
recognized, though his wiles are so numerous that he
can readily counterfeit the spirit of light. He will
do this, in my view, by pronouncing his words very
clearly, so that there will be no more doubt about
their being understood than if they were being spoken
by the spirit of truth. But he will not be able to
counterfeit the effects which have been described, or
to leave in the soul this peace or light, but only
restlessness and turmoil. He can do little or no harm
if the soul is humble and does what I have said --
that is, if it refrains from action, whatever the
locutions may say.
If gifts and favours come to it from the Lord, the
soul should consider carefully and see if they make
it think any the better of itself; and if, as the
words grow more and more precious, it does not suffer
increasing confusion, it can be sure that the spirit
is not of God; for it is quite certain that, when it
is so, the greater the favour the soul receives, the
less by far it esteems itself, the more keenly it
remembers its sins, the more forgetful it is of its
own interest, the more fervent are the efforts of its
will and memory in seeking nothing but the honour of
God rather than being mindful of its own profit, and
the greater is its fear of departing in the least
from the will of God and its certainty that it has
never deserved these favours, but only hell. When
these are the results of all the experiences and
favours that come to the soul in prayer, it need not
be afraid, but may rest confidently in the mercy of
the Lord, Who is faithful, and will not allow the
devil to deceive it, though it always does well to
retain its misgivings.
It may be that those whom the Lord does not lead by
this road think that such souls need not listen to
these words which are addressed to them; that, if
they are interior words, they should turn their
attention elsewhere so as not to hear them; and that
in this way they will run no risk of incurring these
perils. My answer is that that is impossible -- and I
am not referring now to locutions invented by the
fancy, a remedy for which is to be less anxious about
certain things and to try to take no notice of one's
own imaginings. When the locutions come from God
there is no such remedy, for the Spirit Himself, as
He speaks, inhibits all other thought and compels
attention to what He says. So I really think (and I
believe this to be true) that it would be easier for
someone with excellent hearing not to hear a person
who spoke in a very loud voice, because he might
simply pay no heed and occupy his thought and
understanding with something else. In the case of
which we are speaking, however, that is impossible.
We have no ears which we can stop nor have we the
power to refrain from thought; we can only think of
what is being said; for He who was able, at the
request of Josue (I think it was), to make the sun
stand still,[11] can still the faculties and all the
interior part of the soul in such a way that the soul
becomes fully aware that another Lord, greater than
itself, is governing that Castle and renders Him the
greatest devotion and humility. So it cannot do other
than listen: it has no other choice. May His Divine
Majesty grant us to fix our eyes only on pleasing Him
and to forget ourselves, as I have said: Amen. May He
grant that I have succeeded in explaining what I have
attempted to explain and that I may have given some
help to any who have experience of these locutions.
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