Yale University Library
Presented in Memory of
Charles Andrew Armstrong Bennett
Professor of Philosophy in Yale University
By Several of his Friends

This Memorial Collection
was Established in 1934 with the Books
on Mysticism Gathered In London by
Edward Hubbard Russell Ph.B. 1878
Yale College

SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM

AUCTORIS DECLARATIO
Urbani VIII. Decretis, 13 Martii 1625, et 5 Julii 1634
editis, eorumque confirmationi et declaration!, observantia
et reverentia, qua par est, insistendo, profiteer, me baud
alio sensu, quidquid in hoc libro refero, accipere aut recipi
ab ullo velle, quam quo ea solent, quae humana dumtaxat
auctoritate, non autem divina Catholicae Romanae
Ecclesiae, aut S. Sedis Apostolicae nituntur.

NIHIL OBSTAT :
F. Thomas Bergh, O.S.B.,
Censor Deputatus.
imprimatur : Edw. Can. Surmont,
Vic. Geri.
Westmonasteni die 10° Januarii, igsi.

SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM

BENEDICT WILLIAMSON

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL BOURNE
Archbishop or Westminster

A FOREWORD ON THE CALL TO
CONTEMPLATION BY
THE LORD BISHOP OF PLYMOUTH

LONDON :
KIGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD.
ST. LOUIS : B. HERDER BOOK COMPANY
MCMXXI

INTRODUCTION
In reading Father WiUiamson's book Supematuval
Mysticistn I am reminded of two sayings of profound
wisdom, which bring home to us the need of ever striving
after a closer personal union with God.
The first is found in the sixth chapter of the second book
of the following of Christ : Amhulare cum Deo intus, nee
aliqua affectione teneri foris, status est intevni hominis :
"To walk with God within, and not to be held by any
affection without, is the state of an interior man."
The second comes from the wonderful treatise, too little
known in England, of Monsieur Olier, entitled, Pietas
Seminarii Sancti Sulpitii, which begins with the following
words : Primarius et ultiinus finis Serninarii est vivere
swmme Deo in Chnsto Jesu Domino nostro. "The first
and last end of the Seminary is to live wholly for God in
Christ Jesus our Lord."
With new illustrations of old truths Father Williamson
enforces the lesson conveyed in the two sa)nngs just quoted ;
and he will undoubtedly help many souls by his written, as
he has already done by his spoken, words to realize more
clearly the importance as well as the comparative facility
of leading lives in closer and more intimate union with
their Divine Master.
There are at the present day so many souls, not only
among those consecrated to God in the Priesthood and in
the Cloister, but among men and women in every rank and
position in the world who need only a little encouragement
in order to unite themselves more completely to our Lord.
By such union not only would their own sanctification be
rapidly promoted, but their influence for good upon their
own immediate world would also be enormously increased.
The war has taught us much, and has revealed the
secrets of many hearts. One such revelation is the craving

viii INTRODUCTION
for Himself, which our Saviour has aroused so widely and
in such unexpected places, with the lessons of self-sacrifice,
longing to make atonement, and desire to assist by prayer
and intercession the crying needs of the Church and of the
world, which the war has made articulate on the lips of
those who formerly hesitated to conceive or to utter them.
May God bless the author of Supe'matural Mysticism, and
may many draw light, courage, and perseverance from the
reading of its pages.
Francis Cardinal Bourne,
Archbishop of Westminsteie.
Archbishop's House,
Westminster.
Easter Tuesday, March 29TH, 1921.

A FOREWORD ON
THE CALL TO CONTEMPLATION
Set against the dull background of error and unbelief in
this country, the Catholic Faith is really luminous to all.
Even unbelievers are quite aware of the vivid apprehension
of Religious Truth in CathoUc minds, and do not scruple to
give the energumen's testimony that if there is a Religion
it is with our people. It is a fact witnessed in them all,
even in those converted to God at the last, of those
accounted as outcast, but whose Faith was only a banked
fire. The vagaries of life, the tempest of temptation, even
the blight of ignorance have never gone to the roots of the
supernatural nor healed over the sabre-cut made in the soul
by Baptism. Rarely, very rarely, are our rank and file
irreligious however given in crowded centres to latitude of
practice. One may even go further. The humility of the
Fafth is often carried so far that numbers do not recognise
— especially those brought up in the Faith — what deeps
have been made in their souls by the Profunda Dei. They
look with wonder on the lives of saints, the heroism of
martyrs, the great public ideals of the Church and its
importunities. All seems so high to those who are very
modest in their spiritual aims, because very unconscious of
their own spiritual gifts. Generally such are simply
staggered when told that Our Lord is calling them apart to
stand with Him. Like Samuel they are sure it is HeU, or
the vague atmosphere of human desire. Fortunate are
such if some help comes their way — a Priest, a passage in
a sermon, a text, an illness, or one devout Holy Communion
— to elicit what Coleridge has called ' ' the answering
mind." I take it to be the purpose of this book to help
just those who are not conscious of the nearness of the
Lord.

xii FOREWORD
irradiate the soul, suffer as it may for many reasons. AU
this sounds contradictory, but it is always so in appearance
with a holy life.
5. It need hardly be said that many have received this
grace through their devotion to the most Blessed
Sacrament. There is a sense of saturation given by it to
the frequent Communicant as well as a recognisable con
formity to Our Lord. Yet it is a Sacrament. It is a passing
act and it exists for the sake of union between the Lord and
His friends. That union is fed by it, but even as a Presence
it is the refuge and home of souls powerless to say what
they wish or even to form a desire. It was during its first
Celebration Our Lord told souls to abide in Him, and hence
it may not be left out with impunity. But still the life of
union is its effect, that to which it directly tends. What
wonderful help is thus given in these days when Mass,
Communion, Exposition, and so many other Eucharistic
devotions are common as the field flowers.
No doubt many a soul will be helped by this little book,
for many are the prayers with which it is launched. Per
haps they may recognise some signs in themselves of that
spiritual life, which they once thought a vague imagination
whilst all the time a clear and penetrating whisper from the
Lord of Glory.

^ John, Bishop of Plymouth.
Our Lady of the Good Counsel,
1921.

CONTENTS Page
Introduction by His Eminence Cardinal Bourne,
Archbishop of Westminster vii
The Call to Contemplation ix
Prologue: "Those who are Called." i
Chap. I. Our End — God's Glory 4
II. Our Way— God's Will io
III. Our Means— God's Grace 20
IV. God's Creation 32
V. Man's Perdition 40
VI. Christ's Redemption 48
VII. The Bride 64
VIII. Some First Notions of Prayer 74
IX. Detachment 87
X. Mortification of Flesh and Spirit 92
XI. The Night of Sensitive Purgation,
Active and Passive 102
XII. The Night of Spirit-Purgation, Passive
and Active 112
XIII. The First Degrees of Contemplative
Prayer 122
XIV. The Later Degrees of Contemplation —
Simple Union — Ecstasy — Rapture —
Spiritual Matrimony 131
XV. Vision — Voices — Revelations — Stigma-
TIZATION 143

xvi CONTENTS
Chap. Page
XVI. Human Love and Divine Love i57
XVII. The Friends 6f the Bridegroom i66
XVIII. Temptation from the World, the
Flesh, and the Devil i74
XIX. Mystical Substitution 183
XX. The Religious State 190
XXI. Religious Observance and Discipline 200
XXII. Humility 206
XXIII. Silence — Speech — Cheerfulness — 'Peace 211
XXIV. Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and
His Adorers 217
XXV. The Final Consummation of All Things 234
XXVI. Heaven 243
XXVII. Last Words 352
Appendix 257
Index 261

• PROLOGUE
"THOSE WHO ARE CALLED "
Those souls whom God calls to the life of Supreme union
with Himself through the mystical way are found in every
place and in every age, in the cloister and in the world,
no less in this Twentieth Century in which we live, than
in any former time ; for His arm is not shortened, and
His grace and power effect the same wonderful work in
souls to-day that they have ever done in the past, leading
them on to that participation in His Divinity which is the
final stage of their exile, and the anticipation of its full
perfection in the splendid glory of Heaven.
And these souls exist in every state of life, because
although the cloister is the better suited to the growth
of the soul and her development in supernatural ways,
yet ipystical experience is by no means limited to those
who have been called to the life of consecration to God
through the triple vow and separation from all external
things, that they may the more securely cleave alone unto
Him Who has called them.
For we must remember that the solitude of which the
Mystics speak, a solitude necessary if the soul is to attain
her end of complete union, is no mere material solitude,
but the Interior Solitude of the Spirit. This solitude may
exist in the midst of the thronging streets of a great city,
and be utterly wanting in the desert of the most secluded
cloister that can be found. Indeed, one is struck by the
fact that so many souls called to the life of mystic union
are found not amongst the dwellers in the quiet country
side, where outwardly everything favours Contemplation,
but in the heart of busy cities, where, outwardly at least,
everything favours distraction and dissipation.
There are girls in this city of London who, morning
by morning, make their journey to their business amidst
the crush and struggle of tram and train, who pass through
it all, seeing, yet unseeing, so interiorly united to God
I b

3 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
that although things strike the external senses, they do
not penetrate the soul, or disturb the direction of their
spirit to God, and who pass the day's work in the same
way, finding in its doing only a means of union with Him,
and who return home again at night in like manner as they
came in the morning.
Look again at the wonderful interior life of Gemma
Galgani, lived in the city of Lucca, in the midst of a large
family, where to outward seeming her surroundings little
favoured that life of unrelaxing union with God which she
led there, a life, I am assured by a very experienced Italian
confessor, that, excluding certain extraordinary manifesta
tions in the case of Gemma, is by no means uncommon
amongst the women of Italy.
Now, when God leads souls in this way, it is not sur
prising that oft-times He leads them into the Cloister,
where they spend their days in ever-growing union with-
Himself, until love has become so strong that it breaks
the link that binds the soul to this house of our flesh,
and speeds her to the fulness of the Divine Life in Heaven.
But His Gifts and His Graces are ready for all those who
respond to the voice of His calling, dwell they in the
Cloister or in the world ; for this life is one independent
of all outward things, since it is the Kingdom of God
established within us, the life that is hid with Christ in
God. And this may well be the reason why the life of mystical
union so often exists in surroundings in which we should
least expect it ; for the soul that is led of the Spirit in this
way perceives external things without perceiving them.
The outside world necessarily impresses her outward
senses, but does not impress itself upon the soul to dis
quiet her. For instance, sounds strike the ear but do not
penetrate with their meaning to the soul, just as a man
who is absorbed in reading a book is not disturbed by the
noises of others.
Interior solitude, then, is essential for the progress of
the soul, for without it the mind wiU be filled with a multi
tude of distracting images. Until these pictures, painted
by the imagination, and the desires they excite, are stiUed
and banished, the soul cannot make progress towards that

THOSE WHO ARE CALLED 3
wonderful Unity with the Divinity for which alone she has
been created.
So these conferences, given at Tyburn to the nuns who
spend their lives in prayer and adoration before Our
Saviour in the Blessed Sacrament on that spot consecrated
by the blood of our Martyrs, while addressed primarily to
those living the cloistered life, are yet addressed to all
souls whom Our Saviour calls to mystical union with
Himself through the way of interior prayer and penance.
How striking is the contrast between the roar of traffic
without and the silence within that upper room, where
through the day with its noise and through the night with
its silence, the Adorers of Jesus are ever pleading for His
mercy and grace, on the city that is so little conscious of
Him and of them.
It may be said, then, seeing that the very end of our
existence is to attain this union with God, how is it that
the number of those who attain it, in this life, is so small?
The answer is not that God does not call, nor that He
is sparing of His graces, but that only the few are willing
io make the sacrifice which this life demands ; for while
there is no soul that, perceiving the light of Grace working
within her at all would not welcome the peace which this
oneness with God bestows, yet the many are unready for
ihe utter detachment from all created things, and finally
from themselves, that the way demands. Like the young
man in the Gospel, they turn away sorrowful, because,
like him, they have great possessions. Perhaps in the
material sense their possessions are not great, but how
ever small they may be they are great if they stand in the
way of the soul's attainment of her greatest good, and hold
her back from that wonderful joy in the peace passing all
understanding which He waits to bestow on the soul who is
ready to sell all to gain it.
The many are called, and the few chosen, because it
is only the few who are ready to pass through that straight
gate which requires the total surrender of their whole
being to that Lord Who will give Himself wholly to those
who will give themselves wholly to Him. It must be the
whole, for He will not share the heart of His creatures
-with another. We must give Him all.

CHAPTER I
OUR END— GOD'S GLORY.
"Lord, teach me to know my end," that is, the reason
of my existence, the why and wherefore of my creation,
and then, "the number of my days" that I may know
what time remains in which to attain it.
We know nothing, however much we may seem to
know, if we are ignorant of the purpose for which we have
been created and set in this world.
A certain witty Frenchman, after a life of folly, ordered
this inscription for his grave : —
"Here Hes the body of a madman, who went out
of this world without knowing why he came
into it."
And to how many to-day these same words may be
applied, for how slow of heart are most, not
merely in the knowing, but even in making any
effort to know why they are here at all. The many
indeed strive to find their satisfaction in created things,
endeavouring to build their peace on that which must pass
with time ; hence, despite the great material progress of
the world, the heart of man only manifests an ever-
increasing weariness of all those things on which it has
been set, in a vain endeavour to satisfy his soul therein.
This heart of ours never can be satisfied with any
created thing, because it has been made for something a
million times transcending everything on which it can
fasten in this world of sense.
Very many of us, even in the days of our youth, begin
to realise that all things are passing, all things changing,
and only God eternal, and that ' ' this is not the place of
our rest." In early years the heart of the child is set
on some new toy that has captivated its fancy. " Do give
me that : if you will only buy it for me, I shall never
want anything else!" And so the parents, to satisfy
4

OUR END-GOD'S GLORY 5
the child, give it the desire of its heart ; but such is
the nature of all human things that with possession comes
disiUusionment : the child does not find the satisfaction
promised by the thing it desired. A few days later, the
toy is flung away neglected in a corner ; the desires have
fastened on some other object that the eyes have beheld ;
and there is the same eager insistence for the new object
that there was for the old.
As children grow in years their desires increase, their
eyes take a wider range, ever seeking but never finding
in created things that satisfaction for which the heart
craves. The eagerly-looked-for dance that was to have been
" the thing " of the season comes and goes, to leave behind
only a void, only a feeling of desolation ; the first going-
out into the great world from the smaller world of school
and home brings nothing but fresh occasions of disappoint
ment and disillusionment. Neither can we, even if we
would, find our rest in human love and affection.
Look at the family circle united, as thank God, many
are still, in the bonds of strong and ardent love, and you
say : Surely here is real happiness and peace. And into
that circle of innocent gladness comes the angel of death
and carries away the best-loved of all, leaving behind only
an aching void, that in this world never can be filled.
Even when the cup of happiness is at our very lips, how
often it is dashed aside as we are about to drink it.
I remember a girl, engaged to a young officer, working
at the War Office : they were both devoted to each other
in a most wonderful way. One afternoon, as the poor
child was getting ready to go to town to meet him, she
received a wire calling her to go to him at a London hos
pital. She went, only to find a corpse ; he had been
knocked down by a motor, as he crossed Whitehall, and
lingered on for only a few minutes. The poor, broken-hearted
child, almost mad with the grief that had so suddenly
overwhelmed her, had her light turned to darkness, and
her joy of life to inexpressible sorrow.
The longer we live, the more completely do we realise
that nothing created can bestow peace or lasting happi^
ness. Sceur Ther^se of Jesus, very early in her young

6 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
life, had this vividly impressed on her sensitive heart. At
school she had become very attached to two of her school
fellows, and when the holidays were over, she went back
with eager longing to meet them again. But when she
did so they gave no sign of recognition ; they had forgotten
they had ever known her ; and she realised at once the-
folly of resting on the changing character of mere human
attachment for peace of heart.
No, we are created for God alone, and He is the only
One Who can satisfy and fill this poor little heart of ours,
so insignificant, so small, and yet so fashioned that it
cannot be satisfied with anything less than the Ii^finite God
Himself. God alone, He only is our true end, and we are blind
and foolish indeed if we seek for rest and satisfaction in
any other. When we rest our hand for support on
creatures we shall only find it pierced by that on which it
rests. It is God alone Who will be our strength and stay
through all the days of our pilgrimage, and Whose sus
taining Hand will never fail us till He brings us safe
through the gates of Death to the full possession of Him
self, in that Eternity to which He has destined us.
God's glory alone is the one end of our creation, and if
day by day we are not giving Him that glory for which
we have been given existence, we fail utterly in the very
purpose of our presence in this world at all.
And how magnificent our end, since it is none other than
God Himself. He has made us for Himself, and so
disposed our soul that she can never truly find her rest
until she rests in Him.
We are not merely the servants and soldiers of our
King, but more, we are also His lovers ; and, just as He
said in the natural order that there should be ' ' two in one
fksh," so is it true in the supernatuial order that there
shaU be "two in one spirit," for "whoso is joined to the
Lord is one spirit with Him."
But how slowly we learn the lesson, and, even after
being disiUusioned by the things of time again and again,
how ready we are to descend to our attachment to them
once more. It is only after many struggles and many tears
that we finally wrench ourselves free from their thraldom.

OUR END— GOD'S GLORY 7
crush our rebellious will into subjection to the Spirit, and
find that in God alone there is real and abiding rest and
peace. Happy are they who, conquering themselves,
attain to this knowledge, however late.
The Glory of God is our only real end, not our own
happiness, for this is accidental, although it is true that in
giving Glory to God we attain the only true happiness that
nothing whatever here below can disturb or touch ; but
we have to keep this essential fact always before us if we
are to advance at all in the supernatural way, and suffer
nothing whatever to obscure it.
' ' Glory be to God on high ! " So sang the angels on
the first Christmas morn, and "Peace on earth to men of
good will." The peace only comes when we give that
glory to God for which we are created, and we can only
give that glory when every attachment whatsoever is broken.
The extent of our attachment to anyone or anything
created is the extent to which we fail to give glory to God,
because we put some work of His Hand in place of Him
self, for our heart is too small to hold God and creatures
together within it. In this world all things are changing :
everything that is is becoming that which was, and the
thing that will be is becoming that which is ; all future
things are passing from the future to the present, and from
the present on again to the past.
Time is like one of those blue lakes in North Italy, sur
rounded with mountains. As you speed across its waters
in the boat, the villages and the mountains seem all to be
passing ; but when you leave the boat and stand upon the
shore, you realise you have been moving and that the
mountains have been motionless all the while. Time is
like a little lake in the midst of eternity.
Every possession here below is shadowed by the fear of
loss. Those bound together by the srong ties of love dread
separation ; nothing is secure, nothing is sure, nothing
certain in this world of ceaseless change and variation.
See the artist trying to paint the glory of the sunset ;
paint he never so swiftly, the colours are changing, the
glow and the glory are fading ; it is so with everything
in this world of change.
Only of eternity can we say "it is," for time is ever

8 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
flowing on like a river, ever changing more swiftly than
the colours of sunset. Even the Eternal City changes.
You go back after a few years' absence, and how changed
it all is : new faces for old, new buildings for old ; every
thing round you presses deeply on your soul the mutability
of all human things.
So we turn from the changing things of time, to the
changeless Creator of them all. He never changes. He is
the same yesterday, to-day and for ever. It is a great
thing to have a friend who does not change, but how
rarely is one to be found. The friends who do not change
are extraordinarily few. We are made for God alone, for
a union with Him so intimate that we are to become part
of His very Self, since the end of the supernatural life,
even in this world, is to make us partakers of His Divinity
Who became partaker of our humanity to make it possible.
God gives this Grace to those who will pay the price,
and renounce everything for His sake : to these He gives
that Eternal Life which hereafter is to be, in its fulness,
our everlasting portion. There are moments when the
Veil seems worn so thin that we almost see with the Light
of the face-to-face vision itself, although they are gone all
too quickly. Still in His generous loving-kindness He
inclines to our weakness and now and again gives us a
foretaste of the glory that is to be. We are made for
nothing less than the very possession of God, and His face-
to-face beholding with no medium to stand between,
because when we see Him we shall see in Him and be so
united to Him that we shall love with His love and see
with His sight.
The Glory of God is our one end, the sole reason of our
presence in this world, and the soul can only give Him this
glory when completely freed from the slavery of all things
of time and sense. God claims all the love of our hearts
— not a part, not a share, but all of it — and our love for
creatures is to be a loving of them in Him. We love God
for Himself, and all in Him for His sake, not for theirs.
This work, then, is the one essential business of our
life, this giving Glory to God by every movement and every
action of our soul ; as St. Paul says, "whether you eat or
drink, or whatsoever you do, do aU to the glory of God."

OUR END— GOD'S GLORY 9
All the round of daily work, whatever it is, must be
directed to this one end ; this must be our only purpose in
doing it. All the words we speak are to be spoken only
for the Glory of God ; and if we seek in very truth to glorify
God through our speech, we shall be very sparing of our
words. So likewise all our thoughts will be directed to
that same glory, hence we shall have a restraint on them,
that nothing may enter the soul that shall in any way
conflict with the Glory she owes to Him. And so ordered,
the most ordinary and commonplace occupations of life will
shine with the splendour of the Glory of the Lord.
Now the soul that lives for God alone, and does every
thing for His Glory, differs from others not in the things
she does, but in the intention with which she does them.
God's Glory governs her every act and word and thought,
the doing or the not doing is determined always by this
single test. Is it, or is it not for His Glory ? The soul
so living is fulfilling the purpose of her existence, because
she has realised her end and all her movements are directed
to its fulfilment. God alone is the beginning and ending
of her existence. His Glory alone is the motive of her
whole life, of all her actions, great and small, whatever
she does, whatever she says, whatever she thinks : it is all
for Him alone.
And in giving this Glory to God, as it is the one end of
her being, so she also attains a happiness that surpasses
all the happiness of earth, as the light of the sun surpasses
the light of the candle. Moreover, this happiness is con
stant and changeless, because it rests not on the ever-
changing things of time, but on the changeless Creator
Himself : and the restless soul finds her rest at last in the
Arms of God. Finding in Him her end, she finds also in
Him her joy and her peace, and these cannot change,
because He cannot change.

CHAPTER n
OUR WAY— GOD'S WILL
God's Glory is the one end of our existence, to give Hira
this glory in everything, at every time, in every place, this
is to attain our end.
Now we can only attain this end by following the Way
of His Most Holy Will. Nothing whatever that happens
in this world, whether it be the fall of a sparrow or the
fall of a kingdom, happens without God's Will ; His Will
extends alike to the smallest and the greatest ; He rules
the rush of a miUion suns through space and He rules
every trifling incident that befalls us in our daily life, from
the first moment when we come into this world, to the last
moment when we go out of it.
There are times when this world seems a mystery to
which there is no key — a puzzle to which there is no solu
tion, because things happen that so absolutely overwhelm
and confound us, that we cannot perceive how, or in what
way, we can reconcile them with His love, His mercy and
His goodness.
Now, God's Will is both absolute, and permissive, and
everything that does not happen by His Absolute Will,
befalls through His permissive will; so that nothing what
ever can happen in the world that does not fall under the
control of God's Will in one way or the other.
God fore-sees every single thing that shall happen in
my life and in the life of everyone who shall live on this
earth till the day of doom, all that I shall think, and do,
and say, this day, and every day of my life until the last
day of all. He knows every possible way in which my life
might have been disposed of if the events and circum
stances had been other than they are, also the results that
would have flowed from them. Knowing aU this. He
permits that to happen which in fact comes to pass, and as
His fore-seeing is guided by His All-merciful-goodness we
know that the things that actually do befaU us are best, and

OUR WAY— GOD'S WILL ii
that whatever they may seem to be, they are the manifesta
tion of His Loving-kindness towards us. However great
the suffering these happenings inflict, they are disposed
and permitted by the Hand of Supreme Love. He will,
out of all the inexplicable tangle of life, with all its apparent
evil, bring a greater good, and after we have passed from
this waiting-room of time into the splendid Palace of
Eternity, we shall see that every blow that fell upon us
was one that shaped us for Heaven, snapped the chains
that bound us to the things of earth, hammered the love of
God into us, and fitted us for perfect union with Himself.
Our work is to bring our will into conformity with His,
because without oneness of Will there can be no Union, and
until we have attained that, we can never possess the peace
which He came from Heaven to give us.
Well, you must often have heard it said during the late
War : " How can God permit it to go on ? Why does He
allow it ? If He has the power, why does He not stop it ?
Where is His mercy, where His compassion, that He allows
this incredible horror, with all its cruel torture of human
kind to go on?" How often throughout the ages, in
times of great anguish and distress, has the same cry been
heard before ?
We cannot measure the things of Eternity by the things
of time : but this we know, that if through this war one
single soul that else had never entered in made a straight
way to Heaven, then, all the anguish and pain of this
awful conflict was worth while. We cannot measure the
value of a single soul gaining everlasting life against the
greatest temporal suffering, because there can be no
possible comparison.
And we are assured that not one soul only, but a great
multitude, have sped from the Battlefields of Earth to the
glory of Heaven : they knew that death was near, they
prepared for it with all their faculties about them, and
death found them ready to answer to the call.
They offered up their sufferings in trench and battle-line,
in union with their Lord, they accepted with generous
heart whatever His Will for them might be, and He has
crowned and perfected them in a short while and made
them worthy of Himself.

12 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
The measure of our love of God is the measure of our
conformity to His Will. It is true that you can have con
formity without love, but you cannot have love without
conformity. It may be that some souls with little love
will after a desperate struggle say : God's Will be done.
But the soul that loves greatly will always welcome that
WiU, no matter what the pain and anguish it may inflict,
she wiU rejoice in His Will because she loves, and the
stronger her love the more absolute her joy.
But we do not readily attain this one-ness of Will with
Him ; our wiU is not easily bent and shaped to God's. It
is only after many struggles, that we come to see, that in
the total and entire surrender of our whole will to His, we
can really find peace.
How long it takes for us to realise, that God's will
supreme over all, is our one true happiness.
When we are young and impetuous we want to incline
God's WiU to ours, rather than bend ours to His. We
see some work or thing that we feel is for His Glory, ^ —
for I am only speaking of those souls that are trying to
make the Glory of God the beginning and ending of their
lives, — well, we see this, and are inclined to say to Him :
"Lord, You must do this thing ; it is for Your Glory alone
we ask it. You must do it." To prayer so urgent and
insistent God has, as it were, bound Himself, and fre
quently, because of our insistence. He has given us a lesser
good than He would have done, if we had prayed for His
Will to be done alone, without any condition. And how
often, not so long after the gift we had sought so
imperiously from His hand has been given, would we, with
tenfold greater eagerness, have prayed back into His
Hands that which He had bestowed, because that which
we had hoped for from the gift has not been realised.
This befalls not once, but many times, ere the lesson He
would teach us sinks deep down into our heart, and out
of our anguish we say to Him, "Lord, henceforth only
one prayer shall speed forth from these lips of mine, Thy
Holy Will be done. And if I see something which I
indeed believe is in truth for Thy Glory, this only will I
pray, Lord, if this is for Thy Glory, then grant it, but if
not, root out from my heart every desire for it ; even

OUR WAY— GOD'S WILL 13
though my heart be crushed and bleeding by the refusal,
yet Lord, in mercy deny it and do not spare me."
It is only by the hard way of experience, that we reach
thus far, on the way of conformity to God's Will, but
when we have gained this point, I do not say we have
entered, but we have begun to enter, into the peace and
liberty of the children of God.
Such conformity is only possible with love, for love alone
makes the impossible possible, and the stronger the love,
the greater the ease with which our will will be conformed
to our Lord's. Now this Will comes to us under two
aspects : the one active, the other passive.
The Will of God under its active aspect implies the free
deliberate choice of one way rather than another, when two
ways stretch out before us and we have the liberty to em
brace either.
The choice of vocation is such, a free act of our will.
We have heard His call to leave all and enter the cloister,
and we have responded to that call. We had the power
to say Yes or No, to choose the lower way rather than the
higher, because the religious state is the following not of
the commandments, but of the counsels.
And so there are crucial moments in our lives when we
have to take a step forward that must affect the course of
all our future days, and with the Light His Spirit gave, we
have chosen that which we believe to be most in accordance
with His Will and in which we shall give the greatest
glory to Him.
And then, even after, there are many occasions of lesser
choice, when we can choose one way, rather than another,
and when, perceiving that out of two ways, the one will
be more pleasing to Him than the other, we choose the way
that will please Him most. When in doubt, we may
easily find the solution, by choosing that to which nature
inclines the least.
So far, then, we seem to have some share, in the
choice of God's Will, but after all, these opportunities
are few compared with the occasions, when we must
accept His Will, whether we like it or not, when His
Will comes to us ready-made, if I may say so, when
our part is the only acceptance /of that Will as

14 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
manifested in circumstances altogether beyond our control.
We must suffer, whether we will or not, but whether we
shall suffer and glorify God, by a will entirely conformed
to His, or whether we shaU suffer, in murmuring and
rebellion against His disposition of things, that remains
within our own power.
Then we may feel most sure of His Will, because we
have not chosen, but accepted; ours has been the passive
part. All comes directly from Him, and will either draw
us closer to Him or drive us farther from Him, according
as we embrace and accept it with loving submission or
refuse to give Him what He asks.
And the Glory of God is so bound up with His Will,
that it is impossible to give Him the one without the
other, for His Glory is His Will and His Will is His Glory.
How utterly overwhelming and crushing, how heart
breaking and blinding is that Will to us sometimes, when
we are stunned by its suddenness, broken by its weight,
crushed by its power : yet, " His Holy Will be done though
ihe heavens fall." This must be the cry that rises from
our heart to Him : " It is the Lord : let Him do what
pleaseth Him."
We wonder that men go on their way unheeding, we
wonder the sun shines, when the iron has thus entered
our soul and torn out of our life everything that made life
anything to us at all ; but our will rises triumphant and
responsive to His, even then, and says : "Lord, this will
break my heart, but then. Lord, it is Yours to break if You
will." This is Love Divine triumphing in the soul over
Iier human weakness, and drawing her onward to Divine
Union. This absolute conformity to His Will must extend to
everything ; we must hold nothing back from the com
pleteness of the sacrifice, for Love manifests itself in
Sacrifice, and our love of Our Lord manifests itself in the
entire immolation of our will to His, until we come to
that union of Love, in which although there are still two
wills, ours and His, there is only one operation, and that
is His.
Then again, we must have complete conformity to His
Will in all the natural alternations of heat and cold, rain

OUR WAY— GOD'S WILL 15
and shine, calm and tempest, for they are all under the
absolute domination of His Will, and so we should accept
in these things whatever He sends with equal spirit, having
only His pleasure before us, and receiving with joy what
ever that pleasure may be.
What sufferings on the Battle front ; and how uncom
plainingly borne, the cold, the mud, the misery ; entirely
apart from shells and bombs and ever-present danger ;
and yet, was there ever before a place where so much
glory was given to God ?
One dear boy, who realised very fully the nothingness
of all earthly things, sped swiftly along the way to per
fection out there on the desolate stretches of the Somme
Valley. Parched with thirst, he offered it to his Lord
in union with His thirst on Calvary ; worn and exhausted
by the weight of his pack, he rejoiced in the suffering,
because it enabled him to share with his Lord in the
carrying of His Cross. His last letter made me realise
that the time of his departure was at hand : " Pray God,"
he wrote, "that I may give Him the greatest glory a
creature can out of the work He has given me to do out
here." He fell a few days later, in the Great Offensive
of 1916. His work on earth was finished ; in a short
while he had attained to the highest perfection possible
on this side of the veil, and so his Lord called him from
the midst of the battle strife of earth to the splendid peace
of Heaven.
Yes, that war, to the eye of the natural man so terrible,
so revolting in all its ghastly horror, will, when we see it
in the light of God's Eternity, bear a different aspect.
We shall see that those years were five glorious years, five
years that swelled the ransomed host in Heaven, five
years in which souls moved with amazing swiftness along
the road to perfection, because they rose to such a height
of self-sacrifice as they would never have attained in the
more ordinary ways of life.
Everything is all right, because God is doing His own
work, in His own way. There are times when we wonder
what He is about. As a dear child said to me once :
' ' God is the most extraordinary Person out, I never know
what He is going to do next." And that is exactly true :

1 6 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
we never do know, what He is going to do next ; but this
we know, as He said to JuHana of Norwich : "AH is weU.
I shall make all to be weU ; and you shall see that I shall
make all to be weU." True, at times, we find it hard
indeed to realise that all is weU, because all our calcula
tions are upset, all our ideas of His working confounded
by what He does, but through it aU we say : His Will
alone, His WUl how He wiUs, His WiU as long as He wiUs,
His WiU in the way He wills, simply and solely because it
is His WiU.
The soul, thus disposed, stands ready to accept what
ever He is pleased to send, thinks nothing of herself,
nothing of her own pain, but only longs that His Will may
be perfectly done in her, whether by sickness or health,
life or death, success or failure, rejoicing that His Will is
supreme over all, and desiring that it may be accomplished
in her, to the fullest extent possible, in this land, of exile.
Sometimes we are stricken down with sickness just at a
most critical moment, when absorbedin works for Him, and
it seems ' ' the most impossible thing out ' ' ; but the soul
knows that aU is well, and that at this moment her Lord
will be more glorified by her sickness than by any active
work she could do for Him; for if it was otherwise, she
would have health and not sickness.
And then there is the failure of works we have under
taken for Him, or they seem to fail, at least, in the way
we expected them to succeed. Well, we lay down work
for Him with the same readiness with which we took it up.
This is the test, after all, that proves whether we have
in truth been all for Him ; for if something of self has
become blended with that which should have been all for
Him, we shaU feel resistance ; but if it has been indeed
all for Him, we shall as readily lay it down as we took it
up for Him. I do not say that we shaU suffer nothing, at
least in the inferior part of our soul, but the superior part
will remain in peace, if we have only the desire of His good
pleasure within us.
Some years ago a poor man lay dying in abject misery
in a top garret in Bermondsey : his poor body covered with
vermin lay on the few miserable rags that served for a
bed. The priest came bringing His Lord to him for the

OUR WAY— GOD'S WILL 17
last time, and that soul died praising God for His good- ¦
ness in coming to him. And at the very same time, a rich
man lay dying in the West of London, surrounded by
nurses and every luxury that might in any way minister to
his comfort and ease his pain, and he died, cursing God,
because He would not give him another hour to live.
What a contrast between these two, great as that between
Dives and Lazarus, wide apart as Heaven and Hell.
And then again, conformity to God's Will in that hardest
circumstance of all — at least as regards our comprehension
of it — when the sufferings God sends are inflicted on us by
the hands of the good. From the world we look for it,
from the good it is hard to understand ; and yet how often
do we find that it is the good who afflict the good. Well,
we have to look straight through the human instruments
to God Himself ; it is He Who sends the cross, it is He
Who inflicts the wound : so we must realise that they are
only instruments, which permissively or absolutely He uses
to draw us nearer to Himself. For them we must pray
more abundantly, that He may bless them, because of the
favours they have given us ; for we owe them a special
gratitude, since they have been the means of giving us a
special cross, and, therefore, a special opportunity of more
entire conformity to the Divine Will, and a more complete
liberation from our clinging to aught here below.
And above and beyond all these, there are those interior
sufferings, which surpass all those that come from without ;
those times of utter darkness and desolation, so intense,
so piercing and so agonising, that unless, in His mercy.
His Hand shortened them, we could not live through them.
All other sufferings are light compared with these, and
yet, the soul cleaves to Him but the closer in the darkness :
"the deep waters have come in, even unto my soul," the
light of Heaven seems put out, and He, the Love of her Hfe
seems to have left her, to perish in this darkness.
Here, too, the soul only cries : " It is His will ; His wiU,
Holy and adorable, be perfectly done in me ; as long as the
Will of Him I love be done, I count all else as naught.
Let Him do what He wills with His own, I belong wholly
to Him."
There are mysteries of suffering that never will be cleared

1 8 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
up in this world, nor ever fully known, because words are
lacking in which to describe them : but, all the same, we
know everything is all right.
And then sometimes, just after a staggering and over
whelming sacrifice has been demanded of us, and we have
given it gladly and willingly for His love, a small trifle
will throw us down, a few sharp words and we are in
revolt. How our miserable weakness becomes known to
us then, and that really, we without Him can do nothing.
After all, no word can be spoken without Him. He knew
before exactly what was going to be said, when and how it
would be said. I know there are days when contradictions
and crosses follow one another so fast that we feel we have
reached ' ' the very limit ' ' ; but it is all from Him and we
must bear it all for Him, even if it is "the limit" and
beyond. Then, again, there are moments when we feel
sick and impatient with ourselves, our own meanness, our
miserable failure, in some small trifle, to conform our will
to His. He is glad we feel like that, for the more we
realise our miserable nothingness, the more we shall realise
His All-sufficiency.
We must never relax, never grow weary in this great
work of utter and absolute conformity to God's Holy Will ;
we must suffer no moment of impatience to spoil the com
pleteness of our union with Him. If we perceive trouble
and disquiet in the superior part of our soul, well, however
slight it may be, we may be sure of this, that in some point,
be it ever so small, our will and His are not in perfect
harmony, because as long as our will remains one
with His, nothing can trouble the peace of our soul.
And how amazingly careful is He of us ; " Are not two
sparrows sold for a farthing, and yet not one of them shall
faU to the ground without the WiU of My Father," — not
one of them — just the value of half a farthing — and then
He adds, for our comfort, "ye are worth more than many
sparrows," and again, He gives the assurance that the very
hairs of our head are numbered, and not one of them shall
perish without His Will.
Yes, He made us for the praise of His Glory : He loves
us with an everlasting love, and He keeps us by His
Divine Power. Sometimes, watching the Tyrolese

OUR WAY— GOD'S WILL 19
Sculptor working at the block of wood, I have wondered
at the skill which directed each blow : first the rough
shaping with the axe, and the blows descend with shatter
ing force ; then the axe is laid aside for the chisel ; finally
the small graving tools, till the finished statue comes forth
from the master's hands.
True, many a blow seemed struck at random, and the
unskilled onlooker felt inclined to say, " Don't do that, you
will spoil it." But the workman knew what he was about.
The shaping of that statue is a picture of the way in which
God works on the soul, to fit her for union with Himself.
Almighty God knows exactly what He is about ; He
knows exactly what each stroke will do. It is all well.
As we look back on life, how clearly His purpose becomes
manifest, how some of the most shattering and heart
breaking blows that have fallen upon us have shaped us
to His Will, and even in this world we can see that " He
does all things well," or at least realise in some measure
the reason hidden at the time, but revealed as His designs
on our souls are slowly unfolded.
God's Will, then, must become our very life; our soul
must live in an attitude of ready acceptance of whatever
His good pleasure may demand of us. Of course we are
flesh and blood ; we suffer and agonise. But it is through
this agony, through this dying to everything on earth, that
we come to possess His peace, and enter into the glorious
liberty of the children of God. Once this conformity, this
oneness of will between us and Him has been established,
we have attained to true freedom, because, then, nothing
can possibly befall us that can ever disturb our union with
Him ; seeing His Will alone operates in us and our will is
lost in His.

CHAPTER HI
OUR MEANS— GOD'S GRACE
Our end is God alone, the glorifying of His name, by a
life of union with Him, through the absolute conformity of
our wiU to His. The attainment of this end, through the
complete conquest of our whole nature and its total sub
jection to His Will, is a work so difficult that it is absolutely
impossible without supernatural aid.
We know the end — the Glory of God. We see the way
— entire conformity to His Will ; but to tread that way and
gain that end, unless we are aided, is entirely beyond our
strength. Just as there is the end to be attained, and the way along
which we must go to attain it, so likewise there is the means
to help us along that way : and that means is God's Grace
— the indwelling within us of the Living Spirit Who helps
our infirmities and gives our stammerings utterance, and
out of weakness makes us strong.
The Gift of supernatural Grace is a replanting within us
of that supernatural life which has been destroyed by sin.
' ' Except ye be born again of water and the Spirit ye
cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven." It is, therefore,
a spiritual re-birth, by the incoming of the Holy Ghost into
the soul ; just as the indwelling of our natural spirit is the
life of the body, so is the indwelling of the Holy Ghost the
Life of our soul.
The only thing that is of the slightest consequence is
this, that we save our soul and make a straight way to the
Heavenly Country : everything else is really a matter of in
difference, for all other things are of merely passing
moment, but this is of eternal consequence. We may be
the greatest failures out, as this world regards failure, and
yet be the most supreme success in the sight of God.
Failure and success will ultimately be judged not by man's
standard, but by God's. That is what Grace shows us.
How does Grace find us? Poor wrecks indeed, for

OUR MEANS— GOD'S GRACE 21
original sin has blinded our intellect and weakened our will
very thoroughly, at least, as regards the only thing that
matters. Grace is a supernatural gratuitous Gift, given us by God,
that we may obtain life everlasting.
The very smallest stirring of grace which we have ever
received is one that we could not by any conceivable effort
of ours claim as a right : it comes to us as the absolutely
free Gift of God, purchased for us by the life-blood of His
Son. The work of the Spirit has to do in the soul, is to
transform her into the very life of God Himself ; that is the
end of His operation.
The Holy Spirit has a two-fold work to accomplish : to
give supernatural eye-sight to the Intellect and super
natural strength to the Will. The result of original sin
is this, that the soul's understanding is so blinded and her
will so weakened that she can neither see what she must
do, nor do what she sees must be done, unless the
quickening Spirit Himself enter in with His Own Almighty
power, and enable her both to see and to do.
"Lord that I may see," prays the soul; and again:
' ' Send out Thy Ught and Thy truth that they may lead
me ' ' ; she cannot behold Eternal Truth unless the light of
the Holy Spirit shines within to enlighten her.
The soul is blinded in a three-fold way, first by the
pleasures, then by the riches, and finally by the cares of this
world, and unless supernaturally liberated from all three,
she cannot enter into the way of Life.
Pleasures blind the soul, first of all in the ordinary sense
of the word. This is particularly true of the young ; the
circle of delights that gratify the senses appear to them the
only thing worth living for, and even when the Spirit has
begun His work in the soul and they begin to realise the
vanity of things, how much yet remains to be done, how
many the purgations, ere the Divine Union is attained.
Riches, just because they are more gross, more material,
and more sordid, blind and captivate the soul far more
completely than pleasure. The mere pleasure-lover is more
easily awakened than the one immersed in material gain.
There was a millionaire, some years ago, terribly distressed
because he feared his money would not last out his life, and

22 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
consequently he would have to forego some of his luxuries.
Such is the blinding effect of material riches. The first
work of the Spirit is to awaken the soul to the utter
nothingness of mere material wealth ; but there is much
more to do besides this. The Spirit's work is to lead the
soul on till she sees that it is only through the total
surrender, not merely of material wealth, but also of such
wealth of mind and imagination as she possesses, and of all
that is not God, that she can possess the true wealth of the
Kingdom. Cares, too, press down the soul — cares about material
things, cares as to the means of providing for the future, for
one's children, for one's own sustenance. Some are so
crushed with care that they can never look up. If things
are well to-day, they are convinced they will be ill to
morrow : care-worn and anxious as they are, the Spirit
has much work to let the Light in and enable them to cast
all their care upon that Lord Whose care for them is a
thousand times greater than all the care they can take for
themselves. Look at the action of the Holy Ghost, as the first touch
of awakening Grace acts upon the soul ; in an instant the
veil that hides eternal reality from her sight is torn away.
At once she sees things as they really are, realises that the
goods of earth on which she had set her heart are simply
nothing. In the Light of that shewing Earth's pleasures
and treasures are estimated at their true value and for the
first time she realises her own end : she was not made for
the life of this insignificant little world, she is not the
creature of a day, but of eternity, made for Everlasting
Union with God Himself.
There was a young child passing one of our London
Churches, just casually she turned in to pray, and as she
knelt, the Light of the Spirit shone in her soul and she
came out of that Church entirely transformed. The round
of society pleasures that had hitherto filled her life became
as nothing. She began a new Ufe of the Spirit and left
the things of earth behind her.
And again in a city not far away there was another child
just living for the pleasures of the moment, for the things
of sense. In an instant, the Light of the Spirit comes.

OUR MEANS— GOD'S GRACE 23
and she is transformed from the life of the world to the
life of the spirit. Pleasures are all cast aside, and now
she is living a life of prayer and penance that the world
knows not, which is yet very precious in the eyes of God.
Such is the action of the Spirit, giving "sight to the
blind," drawing souls from the shadows of time to the
realities of eternity.
But it is not enough to see unless we receive likewise
strength to do : this will of ours must receive supernatural
strength in order that it may act. Again and again we
meet people who see perfectly well what they ought to do,
yet have not the will to do it. Frequently it has been said
to me : ' ' Oh I see quite well the Catholic religion is the
right one, but I can't take the step, I can't face it." And
how often God calls the soul to tread a particular way, but
the will is wanting, and so there is no response to the
call. We see this, even in children : they have some
medicine to take, and medicine is nearly always bitter, or
at least unpleasant. They know they ought to take it,
but the will is weak. " I can't take it 1 " But at length,
after much persuasion, it is done. Well, there is plenty
of bitter medicine in life, and if only we take it courage
ously, it will do our soul good, once it is down.
Grace takes hold of the will and makes it strong to act,
so that what it cannot do naturally it can do supernaturally.
Strength of will — I mean the natural will — varies
immensely in different people. Some have a will naturally
strong and reliant, and others have a will as weak as water.
You see a child with a strong will, and you know he will
be either Saint or Devil. He will serve God or the
Devil, and whichever it is, it will be with all his might.
All the great things wrought in the world, whether for
good or evil, have been wrought by a strong will. Grace
makes the weak will strong, renews, re-creates and trans
forms it, but when Grace has a will already strong upon
which to operate, despite much resistance such a soul will
be swiftly carried to perfection.
There is no height of sanctity to which that soul may not
attain, who places herself passively in the Divine Hands
and leaves the Spirit to work His Will in her.
Look at the Apostles themselves, see how weak they

34 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
were naturally, shrinking from suffering, terrified by
danger, wanting even in many natural qualities and virtues,
so that we are inclined to wonder at the Divine Choice, and
say, were these indeed the best the Lord could find on the
earth to be His Apostles ? Yet He chose them, weak and
wanting as they were, with their narrow outlook that, after
three years with God tabernacled in the flesh, remained as
narrow as ever, their self-love so strong, that when He
was going to His Death, they could only dispute about the
place they were going to occupy in His Kingdom. That
Kingdom was small enough as they conceived it ; even after
His Resurrection they could only rise to the restoration of
the poor little temporal Kingdom of Israel. He chose
them just as they were, in order that the work might be
more completely and manifestly His Own, and void of any
merely human aid tO its success.
But behold the contrast when the Spirit came on that
wonderful morning when they were all together in that
upper room "for fear of the Jews." The burning fire of
the Holy Ghost entered their souls and possessed them,
transformed them in such a manner that we cannot re
cognise them as the same men. The outward flame was
the token of the Mighty Indweller that had wrought the
marvellous change. The "fear of the Jews" vanishes;
they speak the word with boldness ; they are scourged and
tortured and rejoice at it ; they face kings and rulers un
afraid ; they go everywhere preaching the word and finally
seal their witness in their blood. How the Spirit has
swept out of their souls all their narrow little views of the
Kingdom of Israel : what zeal, what greatness of heart,
what bigness of vision they now possess, for the Holy
Ghost is their sight, they see with His seeing, speak with
His Power, act with His might. The wondrous transforma
tion that the Spirit wrought in them He has been working
in all souls of good wiU, from that day to this.
How extraordinary it is that so many people are so
satisfied with their defects, whereas the only satisfaction
they ought to feel is in getting rid of them. One says, as
if it were a matter for congratulation : " Oh, I know I have
a temper." Quite needless affirmation; everyone else
knows it only too well. There is nothing to boast of in

OUR MEANS— GOD'S GRACE 25
having a temper : the only thing worth mentioning is
having got rid of it. Others say : " Oh, it is my nature."
Yes, it is nature, but what we want is supernature. The
work of the Holy Spirit is to destroy the work of the Devil :
if we have a temper, to take it away ; if we have a defect,
to remove it ; if we have faults, to overcome them. There
are no limits to the work of the Spirit in our souls, except
the limits we place ourselves.
Grace is both actual and habitual. Actual Grace is a
transient favour of the Spirit, God's assistance for some
definite act. Habitual or abiding Grace is the permanent
indwelling of the Spirit in the soul, God's assistance for a
life ; this goes on increasing until the soul is so wholly
united with God, that all her actions become Divine.
A civilian wants to enter the army. He must enlist.
By the act of enlisting he changes his state of life. He is
no longer a civilian, but a soldier, and a soldier's law binds
him. What enlistment is to soldiering, actual Grace is
to habitual Grace. This actual Grace of Baptism makes
us God's soldiers ; we enter on a new state of life, just as
the recruit does. A deliberate act of sin, and our state is
again changed ; we become God's deserters. An act of
contrition re-instates us ; we are God's soldiers once more.
Many actual graces are given during the course of our
pilgrimage; they are God's calls to promotion. Each one
if rightly responded to, intensifies the supernatural life of
the soul, until she comes to that amazing union of mystical
marriage, by which she is transformed fully and completely
into the Divinity.
But too often the story of the soul is not one of continual
progress, but of many risings and fallings, the pitiful tale
of many actual graces rejected ; it is strange but true that
the soul can resist the Spirit. St. Paul says : "Receive
not the grace of God in vain," and again : " Resist not the
Spirit " ; how true it is that, not once but many times, the
Spirit has called and the soul held back ; and the Grace
that should have been hers has been lost for ever ; lost
grace never returns.
There are other graces she may gain in the future : but
the graces that have gone, these can never come back ; the
past is irrevocable, and nothing we can do can ever change

26 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
it. Who shall say what the loss of a single grace may
mean, not only to the soul that loses it, but to other souls
as well. No soul lives or dies to herself, we are all acting
and re-acting on each other; the loss of one single grace
by one soul may bring with it loss to unnumbered other
souls besides.
What smaU things God uses and what surprising people
He chooses on whom to bestow His Graces, and in whom
to work His will.
How unlikely a person seemed the young soldier,
Ignatius Loyala, his mind filled with the thoughts of
chivalry and worldly advancement, to be the founder of a
great religious order. And yet, God has His designs on
him, all through those youthful days when his heart was
captivated by the glamour of transitory things.
God's time came, in the midst of his warlike career he is
stricken down, and carried wounded to the neighbouring
castle. Then, as he approaches convalescence he looks
around for something to read ; the only book that house
contains is a book of the ' ' Lives of the Saints " : I wonder
if there be a house in England to-day of which such a thing
could be said ? The book is brought, but it is not what
he wants, and the volume is thrust impatiently aside. It
was those Romances of Chivalry and Love for which Spain
was so famous that he sought.
The days of his helplessness run on, and to reUeve the
monotony of their passing, even the lives of the saints be
came bearable ; so at length the despised book is picked up
and he begins to read. And as he reads, the Spirit
speaks to him through that book. He is inspired by those
stories of the saints and their triumph over flesh and blood.
Here is set before him a nobler ideal than he had ever
dreamed of before.
He says to himself: "All these saints were men like
myself ; their faith is my faith ; their God my God ; the
grace that was theirs is also" mine ; what they did through
its aid that I can do likewise. I, too, will be a saint."
How much is owing to that one small circumstance, the
absence of the books he desired, the presence of the one
he did not ; but for that there might have been no St.
Ignatius and no Society of Jesus, carrying the Cross of the

OUR MEANS— GOD'S GRACE 27
Lord to triumph in every land. There was a great heart
and generous beneath that worldly exterior, and God, Who
sees not as man sees, beheld it and knew how generous a
response that heart would give once it was quickened by
His Grace. And he is generous : nothing less than being
a Saint will satisfy him. He must give all : so he goes
forth to solitude, there to begin that life of sacrifice and
utter surrender, that abandonment of all for God, which
is the key-note of the Spiritual Exercises, by which he
seeks to lead the soul above all created things to God alone.
How strange a notion the world has of those who
embrace the cloistered state. It thinks of them as being
driven there by some crushing failure, broken by some
cruel disappointment, and as turning thither to find a
shelter in which to hide their grief. True, sometimes it
may be thus that God brings the soul to a knowledge of
herself, but often it is the young girl thriUing with the joy
of life, to whom earth seems to have offered the cup of
pleasure to the full, that in the midst of it all, much to the
world's surprise, exchanges all it has to give for the austere
life of the Cloister. And she hastens there just when life
seems fullest, because her's is a big generous heart, hidden
may be beneath the glitter of a worldly life ; once Grace has
stirred it, nothing less than All can satisfy it. She must
give all to the All for her ardent love can do no less. That
is a spirit you never find in mediocre people, who say :
" Oh, I am quite satisfied if I can just squeeze into Heaven
somehow at last ' ' ; they never know the stirring of that
ardent eager nature, caught up and transformed by the
touch of Grace into a passionate zeal for God.
Look at St. Paul on the way to Damascus : his unsatis
fied zeal must pursue the followers of the Lord, even to
strange cities; he cannot rest content with what he has
done in Jerusalem, he must labour against them wherever
they are found.
But as he is in the way he falls to the earth, a light
shines about him and he hears the voice of that Lord
against whom he strives saying : " I am Jesus Whom thou
persecutest. " Forthwith the persecutor becomes the
Disciple, and that great generous spirit must traverse the
earth, 'stablishing everywhere that which once he des
troyed.

28 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
Bearing always in his body the marks of Jesus, in ship
wrecks, in scourgings, in sufferings, in conflicts of every
sort, his life of burning service speeds on, a life of which
his own description is : "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me." His love of the brethren of the house of Israel
was such that he was ready, like another Moses, to be
anathema that they might be saved. He is the great
doctor of the mystical life, and he traces with clear vision
the Ufe of the soul in her ascent to God, her terrific
struggles, her darkness and suffering, till she is finally lost
in the Divinity. It is from St. Paul that all mystical
writers of succeeding ages have drawn their inspiration,
turning to him as the great Master and exponent of the life
that is hid with Christ in God.
When we mark how his great figure dominates the early
church, and see his restless, never-tiring energy, the fiery
love, the burning eloquence, the indomitable will and un
flinching courage, we are inclined to marvel at God's
choice of St. Peter rather than St. Paul as the Head of the
Church. St. Peter was impetuous and loving, but weak
and vacillating, and his courage failed altogether at the
crucial moment despite all his protestations. To such
questioning St. Paul, himself, has given the answer : " God
hath chosen the weak things of this world, yea, the things
that are not, to bring to naught the things that are " ; and
again : "His strength is made perfect in our weakness."
God willed to show the transforming power of His Grace.
All absolutely, all depends on that Divine Power by which
weakness becomes strength, frailty, fortitude, fear,
courage. The St. Peter after Pentecost and the one
before, seem to be two different men, as indeed they are ;
the one is St. Peter alone with his human weakness, the
other is St. Peter one with the Almighty Power of God.
The Holy Ghost is working to-day with the same resist
less might as in the first ages of the Church, making
Saints out of most unlikely material even in this spirituaUy
frozen England of ours ; His touch gives the quickening
life of the Spirit just as truly as it has even done in the
past. God has, in this our land, even in this our day, souls
leading lives of prayer and penance every whit as wonderful
and supernatural as those of any former age.

OUR MEANS— GOD'S GRACE 29
The soul must be attentive to those inspirations of the
Spirit within her ; to perform some act of charity, to pray for
some particular soul, or to do some particular work. We
cannot tell what may depend on, or what result from these
motions of Grace, both for the soul herself and for others ;
when He speaks, the soul must act.
About thirty years ago, a young priest fresh from the
seminary entered into conversation with a boy as he was
walking down Oxford Street, and their conversation turned
upon religion. When they separated, he gave the boy a
copy of Cardinal Gibbons' " Faith of Our Fathers." The
boy came back to my office rather excited over the gift,
more concerned with its size than its contents, and brought
it to shew me. I casually turned over the pages, with no
particular interest, when some words arrested my atten
tion : "There are some who call themselves Catholics
amongst themselves, but no one else ever thinks of calling
them so." Those few words made an impression never
afterwards effaced, and for the first time the bare possibil
ity of the Catholic Church being right entered my mind.
It was the first step on a long journey : but if that young
priest had not responded to the inspiration of the moment
I might never have begun the journey.
There was a friend of mine, member of a religious Com
munity in the Anglican Church, whose soul was tossed and
troubled with doubts about his position ; so being left alone
one morning he determined to go down to the Public
Library and read — I think it was — Cardinal Newman's
"Apologia." He set out down Victoria Street and as he
was on his way two little children about six years of age
stopped abruptly before him and said: "We's catholics,
do you hold with the Catholics ? ' ' The strangeness of the
incident impressed him very strongly : he went his way, but
all through the day those words of the children ran through
his mind like a refrain. Out of the mouths of children the
Spirit speaks.
God is ever inspiring us both to wfll and to do; His
Spirit living within is ever prompting, guiding, directing,
calling us onwards to the life of perfect union and oneness
with His Very Self.
I know people say in these days : " Oh, it was all right

30 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
in the thirteenth century : things were different then."
It is all right now, in the twentieth century. Human
nature is the same, God's love is the same, our soul is the
same. His CaU is the same. We are aU caUed to be saints —
not half-saints — but saints. We must give God something,
then why not give Him everything ? On this most glorious
spot on which you pray, how the very place itself inspires
you with the desire to give Him everything, like those who
suffered here. Do not the very stones themselves cry
out : "You must be saints." How those martyrs rejoiced
as they went like Brides to their wedding, overflowing with
joy that their Lord had so likened them to Himself as to
grant them a share in His Passion. You remember the
one who was already suspended on the gibbet when the
rope gave way and he fell from the scaffold ; picked him
self up at once and ran back to his place again, saying : " If
you had seen that which I have seen, you had made as
great haste to be there as I."
You have a glorious inspiration, a splendid heritage. All
that the Holy Ghost wrought so marvellously in them He
can likewise work in you, and if- the day for martyrdom
returns once more, I doubt not, martyrs will go to their
coronation with the like joy, as those who have gone the
self-same way before.
See how St. Paul speaks to those who every moment
expected to be haled to torture and to death : "Rejoice,
and again I say rejoice." In truth there seemed little to
rejoice at from a human point of view : yet the note of
those first centuries was that of joy. Men and women
exulted in suffering and rejoiced in torments, they re
garded martyrdom as the splendid crown of their life, so
much so, that they grieved as at a mark of Divine dis
favour if one of them should be denied this sign of con
formity to the Lord.
Theirs is indeed the Triumph of the Spirit over the weak
ness of the flesh, manifested aUke in men and women, boys
and girls, whose song of joy rises from the gibbet and the
fire and glorifies their swift passage to eternity.
As we behold them, it may weU be, we feel that we are
nothing, and knowing our own nothingness, we may have a

OUR MEANS— GOD'S GRACE 31
good hope that the Holy Ghost will make us something,
because there will be nothing in us to oppose His work
within. We must become Saints, that is our calling ; nothing
hinders our attaining sanctity — save our own unwillingness
to respond to God's Grace.

CHAPTER IV
GOD'S CREATION
To attain the life of union with God, through the way of
His Holy WiU, by the means of His Holy Grace, this,
and this alone, is the one reason of our existence. The
Glory we owe to Him can only be given completely in
Heaven, where we shall be, by Divine Union, sharers in
His Nature. On earth that glory is given in the most per
fect degree possible when we have so utterly and wholly
abandoned ourselves to His Good pleasure that we have
neither will nor desire apart from Him, and rest in an
attitude of loving attention, that is not alone one of con
formity, but of uniformity of our will with His. This state,
seemingly impossible to nature, is attainable through
Grace. God created the world and man, man fell, and Christ
redeemed him. These three acts, the Creation, the Fall,
and the Redemption are bound up with the subjects we
have been considering — Creation directs our attention to
its end — God's Glory ; the Fall explains why it is so hard to
bring our will into complete subjection to God's ; Redemp
tion shows us in what manner that Grace was won for us by
which alone we can attain to oneness of will with God.
Mother Juliana, of Norwich, contemplating the little
hazel-nut in her hand which she conceived as representing
the Universe, said as she beheld it: "He made it, He
keeps it. He loves it."
He made it, this Universe, so vast and so magnificent,
with its countless millions of suns and planets, exhaustless,
as it seems, in the splendour of its fathomless grandeur.
Think ; the light from the nearest stars takes nigh two
thousand years to reach this earth — and we know the speed
at which light travels. Thus can we form some feeble con
ception of creation's immensity. And by one act of His
will, God gave it all existence : ' ' He spake the word and
32

GOD'S CREATION 33
they were made, He commanded and they were created."
The creative act of God, has its far off reflection in man.
Every maker of things, is a creator of things ; but man
needs something to make things of, and something to make
things with. The Sculptor wants to make a St. Sebastian ;
he must have ideas, stone, tools. The finished product
will be the realisation in stone of the chosen ideal ; the
work will require time and labour. God wills to make,
and it is made. The Sculptor does not know all the
possible statues he might make ; he knows some. God
knows all the possible universes that might be made ; out
of them all. He chose to make this one. He had no
material ; by one Act of His Will, matter and form received
existence at the same moment, and the Universe sprang
into being.
This is an Act of infinite Power, the work of God alone.
He made it.
Infinite power gave it being ; it needs infinite power to
keep in it being. If God's power sustaining all things was
withdrawn for an instant, all creation would fall back into
that nothingness from whence it came. God keeps it that
it may not perish. He holds it in the hollow of His Hand
and supports it by the Might of His Power.
And He loves it. The Universe which He created He
loves, for it was made in Love. He beholds, in the work
of His Hands and in aU its manifold manifestations, the
manifestation of Himself, the reflection of His Glory, and
therefore He loves it.
This is true of the Universe in general, it is also true of
everything in it, and in a special degree is it true of every-
spiritual nature within it, whether angelic or human : He
loves it.
"He made it. He keeps it. He loves it" ; God is our
Maker, God is our Keeper, and— most amazing of all— God
is our Lover.
This vast universe, whose greatness overwhelms us when
on some starry night we look up and wonder at the depth
of its seeming infinity, is ever telling forth the Glory of its
Maker; "the Heavens declare the Glory of God," the
whole creation is one hymn of Praise to His Majesty, His
Goodness and His Power. d

34 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
God is Light, Light uncreated, Light inaccessible, and
created light is some faint reflection of His splendour.
Light makes visible the object on which it falls, and also
beautifies it : how the play of light faUing on the most
hideous work of man softens its harshness and bestows on
it something of light's own loveliness.
See Ypres, that tragic city of Flanders, with the gaunt
ruins of the old Cloth Hall yet erect and defiant in the
shining of the setting sun ; she is clothed in a strangely
sorrowful beauty, like some Queen in her robe of mourning.
Light does that, the natural light of the sun. God's
Ught, falling on the soul, not only reveals the ruin wrought
by sin ; it covers the soul with some of God's own beauty,
and finally makes her a partaker in His Divine Nature.
God made the world and man. Man is from below and
from above, his nature is partly spiritual and partly
material, he has a body and a soul. God also made the
Angels. Their nature is not material; they are pure
spirits and God's first creation, as they are first also by
their nature in likeness to Himself.
The spirit life of the angels consists in knowing and
willing. These great Intelligences have a capacity for knowing
far surpassing ours. They embrace the whole created
Universe in the reach of their knowledge. Our knowledge
of things is derived from outward phenomena, and attained
by the laboured process of induction, but the angels know
the causes that stand beneath all external manifestations.
This power of seeing behind the outward appearances to
the causes producing them enables the angels to possess
accurate knowledge of future events, when they can be
known in their causes, and also enables them to use the
powers of nature in a way impossible to us.
True, they do not know with absolute certainty those
future events which depend for their realisation on the free
acts of creatures. These, except He reveal them, are
known only to God, but the Angels know everything else
so perfectly that they can be almost sure of the turn of
impending events. To give an example : Spirit Intelli
gences were able to know and communicate the coming of
the great catastrophe, that has overshadowed the world so

GOD'S CREATION 35
completely* : this they were able to do through their
knowledge of the causes already in operation and their
ultimate tendency. These communications, extending
over a number of years, became more pressing and insis
tent as to the certitude of what was coming as the time
drew nigh for its fulfilment; they ceased about one year
before the War.
The Angels' knowledge of God is intuitive : they be
hold God in the unveiled Glory of the face to face vision,
not through the medium of any created thing. They see
Him as He is, in His own Divine Nature and threefold
Personality, since the Saviour Himself has declared of the
Guardian Angels that "in Heaven they do always behold
the Face of My Father."
Their Will also is of a strength commensurate with their
stupendous knowledge.
To will with the angel is to do : the wiUing and the
doing are simultaneous, and the power of their will is such
that they can lay hold of the forces of nature at their
pleasure and use them as they list.
With us to will means the setting in motion of a series
of secondary causes ; the Angels, with their superior know
ledge and stronger will, produce the effects they desire
at the same moment as their willing.
An Angel can pass with such swiftness from one end of
the universe to another that it might seem as if his will
was operating in two places at the same time, although an
immensity of space divides the two.
As the supreme object of the Angelic Intelligence is the
knowledge of God, so the supreme object of the Angelic
Will is the Love of God. The love the Angels render
to God is of a perfection impossible to man in this world,
because of the manifold hindrances arising from the cor
poral side of his nature.
The Angel-Spirits both know and love God, with a per
fect knowledge and a perfect love.
Since they partake of the Divine Nature, all their opera
tions may be said to be Divine, because such is the per-
* I express no opinion as to whether the spirit communications were
angelic or satanic, as I am only concerned wjth the fact as illustrative
of angelic knowledge.

36 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
fection of unity between their will and God's that although
there are two wiUs, the Angelic and the Divine, there is
only one Divine operation; they are so possessed by the
Divinity, that they never vary by so much as a hair's
breadth from the WiU of their Lord.
The intensity of their burning Love is such as passes all
our capacity of even conceiving; it is a Love which is
adequate to its object, because the very Love itself is
produced by the Divine Fire burning within them ; they
live their life in the very Being of God.
Their essential work is the Praise of God's Glory, which
they render Him by looking and loving. Looking, they
are flooded with God's Infinite Goodness and Beauty
received in their spirit-nature without any defect because
there is nothing to resist the incoming of the Uncreated
Light. In this Seeing their wUl becomes one Living
Flame of Love, and this flame is ever burning with
exhaustless energy ; the Angelic Spirit is like a piece of
wood cast in the midst of a furnace, that glows with the
light of the fire in which it is cast, ultimately becoming
fire itself ; the Angel-Love in God is in such wise that
it is God-Love too.
The Angels communicate with each other by spiritual
impression, through which the whole conception of the
one Angel is impressed intellectually on the other at once,
in all its completeness ; hence there is no possibility of
misunderstanding arising as to the nature of the communi
cation or around anything connected with it.
If we reflect on the difficulty we experience in conveying
to another the particular conception we have in our mind
by the laboured medium of speech or writing — and how
often we find, even when we seem to have obviated every
possibility of error, that we are entirely misunderstood —
we shall the better realise the excellency of the Angelic
mode of speaking.
' ' What a pity we cannot talk as the angels do ! " said
a dear little sister to me one day, who had more than once
experienced the difficulties of speech as a means of con
veying ideas and concepts.
Sometimes the spirit of some holy soul is elevated up
to the height of spiritual communication at certain

GOD'S CREATION 37
moments in this life. St. Bridget of Sweden relates how
the whole Rule of her Order was revealed to her spirit in
one single flash, although, as she said, it took long after
to write it down. Trying to describe her impression, she
said it was as if a multitude of precious jewels were poured
out before her at once, and the intellect was able at the
same instant to grasp all the detailed beauty of each.
Towards the end of his life, St. Benedict in his cell at
Monte Cassino beheld the whole world and all happenings
in it gathered up into one single ray of light ! Whether
these two shewings were impressed upon the soul by
angels, or directly by God, is immaterial ; whichever it
may have been they do help us a little to understand the
speech of the Spirit- world.
The Angels come into communication with man either
through (a) external or (b) imaginary vision, or by {c)
direct spiritual impression on the soul.'
In the first case, they assume some material body in
order that their presence may become manifest to our
natural sight, as a spirit cannot be seen by the senses.
The formation of such a ¦ body offers no difficulty to the
Angelic nature, with its extraordinary knowledge and will,
by which it can exert all its immense strength to perform
whatever it determines : Such appearances of angelic
spirits are recorded in every age and every land. In
these manifestations they use a material form to be seen by
the eye and a voice that may be heard by the ear, as was
the case with the Angel who led forth St. Peter out of
prison and conversed with him.
The Angel employs the imaginary vision, when he uses
the imagination as his medium of communication. The
vision may be so vivid and the speech so distinct that
the soul receiving the impression through the imagination
cannot always distinguish between it and the external
vision. The third and most perfect communication is by means
of Spirit impression made by the Angel-Spirit directly
on the soul, whereby the whole matter is impressed at
once with great power and lasting effect, exceeding any
thing wrought in the other two cases.
In the first two modes of communication it is often

38 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
extremely difficult to determine whether a particular mani
festation is an external or imaginary vision, because the
narrator gives his experience as he received it, with little
regard to the mode of its coming. Sometimes even the
third experience of spiritual impression may become con
founded with either of the former, but owing to the more
abiding character of this vision it can, as a rule, be readily
recognized. A certain soul, who had experience of these spiritual
impressions, describing one in particular, said: "If
appears more real to me than anything that I can see (with
the natural eye)," and this impression of which she was
speaking, remained in her soul vividly distinct for some
months. Such is the great world of Angel-Spirits, amazingly
endowed with sanctifying Grace and gifted with inconceiv
able powers of knowledge and will ; each angel, as St.
Thomas says, a very world in himself, a world with which
we are constantly in contact through the spirit life of the
soul. God's other spiritual creation is man. He formed man's
body from the dust of the earth. We can scarcely think
of that body without thinking of the sentence that fell upon
it as the result of the fall : ' ' Dust thou art and to dust
thou shalt return." We find it difficult to realise the
body's first estate and yet, unless we do, we shall only
imperfectly understand man's composite nature. Man's
body was formed not for death, but life, unending life,
and so the body in the glory of its first existence was not
subject to decay and corruption ; it was immune from all
the varied pains of disease and sickness, was not fatigued
and wearied by labour, lost not the freshness of youth with
the passing of days, but ever remained exulting in the
full plenitude of its powers.
And the Living Spirit, the soul within, imparted vitality
to the body in which she dwelt ; for the soul is the life of
the body, not the body the life of the soul. That soul
was herself filled with all the fulness of God, the Divine
Spirit of His indwelling united her in perfect love and con
formity to His Will, so that she never varied from that
Will for one instant in anything great or smaU.

GOD'S CREATION 39
Through this indwelling of the Spirit the soul enjoyed
that gift of integrity whereby all her powers and passions
were absolutely subject to reason ; for example, the
passion of anger was incapable of rising up in revolt and
casting reason from her throne, as so often befaUs in
man's fallen state.
When anger blazes forth and casts reason aside, you
behold one temporarily bereft of his senses ; you do not
attempt to reason with him, unless you are supremely
foolish; you know it is as easy to reason with a lunatic
as with an angry man ; you get out of the way and wait
till reason shall have once more resumed her sway.
What is true of Anger is true of all the other passions,
as we only know too well by sorrowful experience. We
are so accustomed to this ceaseless conflict within that
we find it difficult to realise the state when every passion
was humbly obedient to reason, when the five external
senses only perceived that which the soul within willed
them to perceive, and man's body, instead of being a
burden to bear down the spirit, was in every member abso
lutely subject to the dictates of the soul ; yet such was
man when he came forth into existence at the first. His
soul-life, like that of the angels, consists in knowing and
willing, and both his knowledge and his will had a power
not unlike that of the Angels, before the ruin of the fall.
"Man was made a little lower than the Angels,"
because his spirit was restrained within the narrow limits
of the body, but he was made "a little lower" that the
Lord might "crown him with glory and worship." Had
he come triumphant through his probation, the body, with
out the pain of death, would have been glorified and lifted
up to share in the gifts of the spirit-Ufe, as it shall be yet,
when the final triumph of the Lord shall come.

CHAPTER V
MAN'S PERDITION
We have not been long on this earth before we perceive
that there are two contrary principles acting and re-acting
upon the soul. One moment the evil power seems to have
impressed himself so strongly upon her that she seems all
but helpless and will-less beneath his control; at another
moment the power of good seems to have triumphed and
the soul is so filled with peace that she thinks she will never
be moved. But the peace is broken, the darkness comes
back, broken again by the light, and the conflict goes on
with ever-varying fortune and intensity all the days of life,
until death comes to end the conflict, save in the case of
those few souls in whom one power or the other has
gradually obtained such complete mastery that there is
little or no variation in their state.
The soul looks for the explanation of this conflict, which
she perceives in others no less than in herself. WTiy this
strife ? Why these astonishing and extraordinary contra
dictions in the same personality that, regarded from with
out, seem so utterly inexplicable and incomprehensible?
For the explanation, we have to go back to that begin
ning of evil, when the standard of revolt against God was
set up by the rebel Angels in Heaven.
We have seen something of that Spirit-world, the
splendour, the might, the knowledge of each one of the
angel-host ; power ranging up through vast hierarchies of
light and attaining its culmination in Lucifer, the Light-
bearer, the most magnificent creation of God in all that
most magnificent world.
Of his superb grandeur, intelligence, and mighty power
we can only form the feeblest conception, but we can in
some measure gather what it was from what it is, even in
his fallen state, from his influence on the chUdren of men,
from that first fatal moment long ago, down through all
the ages until now. 40

MAN'S PERDITION 41
There came a time in that great Spirit-world when all
the inhabitants should be proved in their allegiance to
their Lord and Life-giver. Then this magnificent Intelli
gence, beholding himself so superb in the splendour of his
powers, uplifted the standard of revolt: "I will be like
to the Most High, I will not serve." In that moment,
when he beheld himself, pride filled his being, and he
turned from the Vision of the Uncreated Light to the vision
of himself. And one-third of the heavenly host, joining
him, united beneath his banner ; they were the first-born
of all the children of pride.
Pride was the first sin of all, for "I will not serve"
follows swiftly on the cry, ' ' I will be like God " ; pride
manifests itself in rebellion.
St. John saw in wondrous vision that mighty conflict,
when Michael and the Angels who kept their first estate
joined battle with Satan and all his rebel host. Michael's
battle-cry, ' ' Who is like to God ! ' ' opposed the truth of
humility to the lie of pride. "And there was war in
lieaven, Michael and his Angels fought, likewise the Devil
and his Angels, and prevailed not, but were cast out,
neither was their place found in heaven any more."
So war is no new thing. It goes back through all the
ages of earth to that first far-off struggle, the unhappy pre
cursor of every conflict since. That was no long drawn
out strife, swift as the lightning fell Satan and his rebel
army, from the splendour of Heaven to the outer darkness
of Hell, in the fateful moment when the contemplation of
self replaced the vision of God.
The supernatural life, in which they had rejoiced from
the beginning of their creation, was for ever blotted out,
so utterly destroyed that it was as though it had never
been. They who had been Angels of Light became spirits
of darkness, for whom was reserved the blackness of ever
lasting night. The sin of the Angels, committed with the
full light and power, with all the deUberation of their
Spirit-nature, was such that it was without repentance and
-without redemption.
Each of the Angels fell through his own deliberate
¦choice, independent of and unaffected by the act of any
•other Angel ; the pure-spirit nature of the Angels did not

42 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
proceed from a common stock, like humankind by the
process of generation, but each Angel was the separate
creation of God, a complete and independent world in
himself. Fallen though they are, their essential nature has not.
changed, so that the powers proper to them yet remain
and are still exercised.
And there was a great void in those Spirit Hierarchies,
after that stupendous conflict, but the Angels under
Michael who had proved true to their trust were confirmed
in Grace and henceforth were so oned with God that the^
were forever incapable of falling from Him.
To fill the ranks thinned by pride God created man, and
He made him in a state below that of the Angels, the more
effectually to humble the pride of those whose place he
should fill.
Man's inferiority arises from the fact that the soul, a
pure spirit, is limited in its action, restrained in a mere
corporal body, a body proceeding by generation from
parent to child. The soul because of its spirit-nature is a
separate creation, like the Angels, infused by God into the
body prepared for it.
But after man's probation that body was to be glorified
in such wise as to partake of the life and powers of the
spirit. Now, just as the Angels had the probation belong
ing to intellectual nature, so likewise had man.
When God formed man in His own likeness, and set
him in that Paradise of pleasure wherein was found every
thing that could minister to the full and abundant satis
faction of man's corporal and spiritual life, God laid a
command upon him : "Of every tree of Paradise thou
mayest eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil
thou shalt not eat, for in the day thou eat of it thou shalt
die the death."
There is the Divine Command, and a penalty is attached
to it — the death penalty.
The supreme duty of the creature to the Creator is abso
lute submission, prompt and perfect obedience ; this is
the foundation, without which no order, natural or super
natural, can exist.
To every command there is attached the penalty that

MAN'S PERDITION 43
must follow on disobedience to it. There was the duty
of obedience out in France, and there was the penalty, in
grave cases, death ; hard, but necessary, for a command
without the sanction of a penalty would be little worth.
Look at man, as he stands in the splendour of his un
fallen state, look at his gifts and powers, at his surround
ings ; down to the most insignificant trifle, all is the
free gift of God; surely man is bound to render to the
Giver of all, the most generous and loving service that a
creature may.
But into this Paradise of pleasure the Devil comes. He
assumes the innocent form of the serpent, the easier to
open his attack ; he will not shew himself in all his un
masked malignity, although he has ' ' come down having
great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time." His
first word is a direct challenge to God's Authority : "Why
has God commanded that you should not eat of every tree."
By what right, by what authority, does He impose this
upon you?
Why? That is the interrogation running through the
ages, from the first utterance in the garden until now.
Why this restraint, why these commands ? How loudly we
hear that "Why?" to-day, when men seek to throw away
all restraint, and cast aside all law, human and Divine.
And the woman begins to argue with the Devil and of
course she is no match for him, for he is a clever reasoner,
far more clever than the most brilliant theologian the
world has ever seen. You know the old proverb: "He
who would sup with the Devil must have a long spoon."
In her answers Eve goes beyond the command. God
had said, " You shall not eat of it," whUe she adds, " nor
touch it," but she hesitates about the penalty, "lest per
haps we die " ; she exaggerates the one and minimises the
other. The Devil is quick to take advantage : "No, you
shall not die the death, for God knows that in the day you
eat of it your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as
Gods knowing good and evil." He presses the attack;
he makes light of the peril: "You shall not die the
death." Then he spreads before her all that will be
gained : " Ye shaU be as Gods."
Her eyes turn to the tree, "it is good to eat, beautiful

44 SUPERNATyRAL MYSTICISM
to the eyes, delightful to behold." The Devil is no fool :
he never paints sin in all its horrible hideousness ; no,
he presents it under the appearance of good ; as he
tempted to that first sin, so he has tempted to every sin
since. Beautiful to the eyes, fascinating, alluring, captivating,
sin is all that, and the soul is held fast in its toils. And
good to eat, good because of the satisfaction it offers to
the senses hungry with desire. Yes ! That is how the
Devil with a few master-strokes paints sin.
And as he painted it on that first disastrous day, so has
he been busy painting it ever since.
There was a poor young child of seventeen, brought up
in a convent school, not in the world a year before she was
swept off her feet by sin in its most deadly and seductive
form. She sinned with the manager of the office in which
she was employed. I tried to get her away out of his
power, but, alas ! in vain. She was blinded and fascinated,
and yet, poor soul, she said : " Father, I never knew what
sin was till I left the convent." And I believe her.
Only a few months and she falls into the hands of this
wretch who blasts her life : "Ah, Father, it seems to be
all right when I am with him."
How well the Devil sees to that ; he takes care that the
soul is blinded, once he has got her into his net ; that is
one of the extraordinary things about sin, — it not only
fascinates, but it blinds, so that good becomes evil, and
evil good.
It is amazing how great is the attraction, for that which
is forbidden : it is enough to say to a child, "You must
not go there," for him to turn that way. Give him a
garden to play in, as large as you like, and forbid one little
corner, and see how he will gravitate to the spot. There
must be something wonderfully good in that little corner,
and his imagination pictures it as possessing more delights
than all the rest of the garden, however large it be.
But to return : the longer Eve looks at the tree the
more delightful it appears, the more excellent the fruit ;
surely the thing that looks so pleasant to the eye cannot
bear within it the seed of death ?
And the Devil watches her glance, he sees to it that

MAN'S PERDITION 45
nothing shall be wanting in the seductive sweetness of the
vision he sets before her, and his work is well-nigh done,
since he has turned her eyes from God and set them on that
which perishes.
At last the delight of that sight overcomes her hesita
tion : she stretches forth her hands like so many since have
done, and takes the fruit and gives to her husband, and
they both eat of it.
But while it is yet in their mouths they perceive that
what seemed so fair has the sting of death within it. The
supernatural life within them is shrivelled up and de
stroyed, leaving not even a trace behind ; they fall to the
level of the purely natural life, the vision of God is only a
vanished dream ; they see the Devil's promise verified
in part at least, for they know the meaning of good and evil.
The destruction of that supernatural soul-life brings in
its train the death of the body. The body must share in
the guilt of the soul, its agelessness is gone, so is immunity
from sickness, pain and weariness.
"By one man sin entered the world, and death by sin,
so that death has passed upon us all, since all have sinned
in him."
Death, then, is the penal consequence of sin : it is
only through sin that death finds admittance to the world.
Had there been no sin there would have been no death.
The double death of soul and, body fell not merely on
those two first parent-sinners of our race, but likewise
upon all their descendants, because the human race was
so oned with Adam that all sinned in him, and hence all
human-kind must share in his guilt.
That act of sin induced the state of sin, the act was
transient, the result permanent ; and, because permanent,
the Apostle could say, "so death passed upon all."
Every single soul enters this world in a state of spiritual
death because she enters it deprived of her supernatural
life. Perhaps sometimes you have watched the ever-widening
circles produced on the waters of a pond, when a stone has
been cast into it, and marked how the ripples have only
been arrested by the shore. The first sin is the stone, and
time is the pond. The circles still ripple across the ages

46 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
and they shall not be stayed until that last morning when
the Angel, standing with one foot on land and one on
sea, shall declare that time shall be no more.
What is true of the first sin is true, in a lesser degree,
of every actual sin. Every sin makes its circles on time's
pond, and ripple succeeds ripple long after the sinner has
passed to his reward.
There is a great gulf fixed between the soul and the
body. The body is mortal, but the soul is immortal, and
the immediate creation of God, infused into the body duly
prepared for it.
Being the immediate creation of God, the soul is neces
sarily good, and only comes under the domination of sin
in consequence of its union with a body conceived
in sin. So far as the soul is concerned, original
sin consists in the privation of sanctifying grace alone and
in nothing else ; it is nothing actual, but something is not
there which should be there, and would have been there —
that is all.
The soul, thus deprived of sanctifying Grace, is in
capable of attaining her supernatural end, which
necessarily requires supernatural means.
The essential evil of sin is not in the death of the body,
but in the destruction of the supernatural life of the soul.
Terrible as the death of the body may appear, it is nothing
when compared to the soul's death.
As a result of this want of sanctifying Grace the soul's
vision is clouded and her will weakened to such an extent
that, without supernatural aid, she is incapable of any
supernaturally good act, that is of any act meriting a super
natural reward. She is utterly incapable of taking even a
single step towards the attainment of her end. That does
not mean, for a moment, that she is incapable of acts of
natural goodness. Human nature, unaided by Grace, can
produce acts that are naturally good. On the battle-front,
during the war, men rose to the most sublime and incon
ceivable heights of natural goodness, and, thank God, of
supernatural goodness too. There is a clear distinction
between the works of nature and of Grace : the motive
power of one is natural, of the other, supernatural, the
Holy Ghost operating in the soul both to will and to do.

MAN'S PERDITION 47
But look at the state of man as the result of the fall :
Sin is triumphant and the whole race subject to its power,
incapable of rising by any effort of its own to that super
natural Hfe lost by the single act of original sin. The
most austere penances, the most inconceivable mortifica
tions are alike in vain : unless aided from without, man
can never arise from the misery into which he has fallen.
A great king beholds a poor beggar by the roadside and
his heart is stirred by love and compassion ; and he takes
him into his royal court, bestows on him princely rank
and a heritage befitting his state, on condition that he
renders loyal and faithful service. The man is seduced
by the king's enemy, and forgetful of aU his obligations
and of the king's loving generosity, he goes over to the
enemy, and joins in the campaign against his sovereign.
As a consequence of his rebellion he is deprived of his
princely rank and heritage, and outlawed from the country.
This man's children will suffer, but not unjustly. They
will not be deprived of anything that is theirs by right ;
they will be deprived of something which would have been
theirs, as the result of a free gift. The father's rank and
position is gone, they cannot inherit it. Should the
children, when of age, join their father in open warfare
against the king, then their enmity is no longer
' ' original ' ' but actual.
Adam was that beggar, and God the King.
The princely rank was the supernatural life, by which
Adam was brought to share in the glory of the Royal
Court and in the vision of God. The man's heritage was
the preternatural life, the gift of integrity and immortality
corresponding with the dignity to which the supernatural
life had upraised him.
The Devil is the King's enemy, who seduced the man
from his allegiance by the glittering delights he set before
him. Every actual sin committed by the children of Adam is a
personal act of warfare against the King, meriting, there
fore, its own special punishment.

CHAPTER VI
CHRIST'S REDEMPTION
There are events so shatteringly stupendous in their
immensity that it is only gradually that the mind begins-
even to guess at their tremendous significance.
The fall of man is one of these events, so incomparably
vast in the reach of its overshadowing, that the human
mind reels in the presence of a happening so inconceivably
beyond its power of comprehension.
On that fateful day, when the darkness descended on
humankind, the promise of light was given : "the seed of
the woman shall crush the serpent's head."
How can the great gulf fixed between man and his Maker
be bridged over? A mediator must stand in the
gap and make of both one. And when these two who are
to be oned are God, infinite, uncreate, and the creature,
the work of His hand, how shall one be found, who, par
taking of the nature of God and man, shall by his one
mediatorial act restore the unity destroyed by sin ?
Who shaU offer to the Divine Majesty a satisfaction
sufficing to atone for the sin that seems so beyond all
satisfaction ?
A Mediator is forthcoming Whose Personality is Divine,
and Who unites in that personality both God and man.
The Eternal Son of the Everlasting Father, casting the
Eyes of His limitless compassion on the ruined children
of men, determines their restoration in His Own Person,
through the assumption by Himself of their nature.
In the "fulness of time" — God's time, not man's —
the moment for Redemption came ; the wonder-story
began its unfolding in time, although foreknown from all
eternity. The Angel Gabriel comes to that young girl of the
lineage of David and declares to her the amazingly sublime
mission for which she is destined : ' ' the Holy Ghost shall
come upon thee, and the power of the Most High over
shadow thee."
The young girl has been marvellously formed and
48

CHRIST'S REDEMPTION 49
fashioned for the work she has to do. Through the merits
of the "Lamb slain before the foundation of the world"
Whom she is to bear in her womb, she is exempt from the
dark image of sin that disfigures all the world. Grace
works in such matchless sort in her soul, that every beating
of her heart gives a fresh glory to her Lord, and yet,
resplendent with Grace as she is, she is a creature with
her own free will. She can pronounce her yea or nay to
the Angel who stands before her.
What miracle of power is this, that God puts into the
hands of a child of sixteen : the right to accept or refuse
the salvation of our race ?
And she neither falters nor fails in her God-given
mission. Fiat. "Be it done to me according to Thy
word," and as those words escape her Ups "the Word
was made flesh." She carries within her womb Him Who
rules the starry heights, and holds all things that are, in
the hollow of His Hand.
The preparation for this day had been long. God had
chosen one special nation, led them, taught them, dwelt
in the midst of them, just for this.
We realise how strangely different are God's ways from
ours as we look at this nation, chosen to be the means
through which Redemption should come into the world.
How slow and hard of heart to understand His teaching;
how manifold their rebellions and back-slidings ; how
earthy and dull of hearing to those He sent to them ; but
they were God's chosen, the choice of Him Who knew all
things. And how altogether surprising, how utterly un
foreseen, is the way of His coming. A poor girl and a
poor man make their way through the streets of Bethlehem,
they seek a shelter from the winter's cold. There is
no room ; no room in the palace ; no room in the houses ;
no room even in the inn.
But at last a shelter is found, poor and wretched : it
is the roughly-fashioned stable, rock-hewn, as you may see
in any Eastern town to-day. The beasts are the only
companions of these two poor wanderers; and there, in
that cattle-shed, is born He who has come into this world
for its ransoming.
Such is the home which this world prepares for its
E

50 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
Saviour ; and such is the place of His choice, since all
things obey His wiU.
Look at His Royal Throne, the manger with its trap
pings of straw.
This poor little helpless Child is the great God of all,
upholding all things by the Word of His power ; ruling
the planets and the suns as they speed through space, yet
poor and suffering on the straw of that most strange
throne. Ah, Bethlehem, hidden beneath the shroud of
Humanity lies Divinity in thy lowly cattle-shed !
A few poor shepherds are up there on the hillside mind
ing their sheep. They alone out of all Israel receive word
of the Redeemer's coming. Shepherds are the first
adorers of the Good Shepherd.
Suddenly they perceive a wondrous light; they look up,
their amazed eyes behold the shining forms of Angels, and
they hear the words : " Fear not, for I bring you tidings
of great joy, for unto you this day in Bethlehem is born a
Saviour, Christ the Lord."
The men are so simple that they are not surprised at the
vision and the message : theirs is faith which sees the
invisible and is not confounded at the seeing. The
heavens are filled with all the hosts of light, and the notes
of the first " Gloria in Excelsis " break the silence of that
most silent night. Then all the light vanishes, the songs
are stilled ; everything looks just as it did before.
But the shepherds do not think it all an illusion, or that
they have been dreaming : they do not seek for some
means of explaining away their astonishing experience.
No, without any hesitation they say : ' ' Let us go even
unto Bethlehem and see this great sight which the Lord
has showed to us."
It is to the very simple that God reveals His Truth.
The clever, or at least those who think themselves so,
expect God to accommodate His working to their own little
preconceived ideas : they are all put out when He upsets
aU their calculations as to how He should act. They
are quite sure of themselves and ready with an explanation
of everything in Heaven and Earth.
The Shepherds of Bethlehem were not clever; the
miracle offered no difficulty to them ; they were not con-

CHRIST'S REDEMPTION 51
founded because an Angel had spoken to them ; they took
it all as a matter of course, and so they went their eager
way, sure they would find in Bethlehem what the Angel
had foretold.
And what an anti-climax awaits them in that cattle-shed.
An Infant, lying weak and helpless on the straw, and close
beside, a poor young girl. His Mother, watching over Him,
and a poor man. Is this "the great sight" they have
come down the mountain-side to see? Have they not
made a mistake ? Surely this poverty-stricken little group
is not the Court of the great King ?
They have no hesitation; it is stiU "a great sight"
to them, because they beheld it with the great sight of
Faith. They paid their simple, fervent adoration there,
in that place, so lowly, yet so high and lofty, since the
great God of all had vouchsafed to choose it for His Dwell
ing. Other adorers are approaching, led by the shining of a
star. Three wise men, instructed by ancient lore that a
star's appearing would be the sign of the coming of
Redemption, had watched the face of the sky wistfully,
hoping to see the day foretold. And they watched, and
saw. ¦
With unfailing courage they set out on their way to
follow the leading of the star. There were wise coun
sellors, then as now, ready with a hundred reasons against
their journey. The desert, infeste4 with robbers, the un
certainty of following this strange light in the Heavens that
might lead them they knew not where, to they knew not
what. The wise men brushed all such reasoning aside, and,
pressing on their way, came at length to Jerusalem, the
city of the Great King.
Here they are confident they will find the object of their
quest. Surely the whole city wiU be astir to welcome the
King, Whose sign in the Heavens had led them thus far on
their way.
But Jerusalem, although it holds the temple of the Lord
of all, although it is the place where He has set His Name,
is a great disappointment to the Magi. It is not making
ready for the King, it is aU unconscious of His coming, and

52 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
only distressed and troubled on hearing the tidings. Herod
fears for his throne ; the Priests fear for the Temple ; and
in fact, the whole city is moved, not with joy, but with
consternation at so inconvenient a coming.
The Council is called, and doctors of theology show that
it is at Bethlehem, not Jerusalem, that the Saviour is to
be born.
The wise men, despite their disappointment and surprise
at the unlooked-for distress their news caused, with un
resting haste go on their way once more. Passing out
side the city gate into the open country-side they behold
once more the shining of that star whose light had been
hidden in the glare and stir of the town. And their hearts
are quickened and stirred with wonderful joy as they see
the familiar light again, leading them until it stands over
the place where the Young Child was : And what a place 1
How unlike the splendid palace of Herod is this poor little
wayside shed. But their faith does not falter, they do not
hesitate, straightway they enter in.
With adoring faith piercing the outward shewing of
humanity, they behold their God, and falling in ardent
adoration at the feet of this poor little Child, they offer
their costly gifts : Gold, because He is King of Kings ;
Incense, because He is Light of Light ; Myrrh, because He
is Victim of Victims.
The supremely wise and the supremely simple alike find
their way to the Saviour's feet. The supremely simple,
knowing their own nothingness, find the way of Faith
through their own utter poverty.
The supremely wise have the wisdom to know their own
poverty, so they find the way of Faith through the know
ledge of their own nothingness.
Those who never find their way to Bethlehem are the
half-wise, who know enough to think they know every
thing, whereas they really know nothing as they ought to
know it : let them become fools that they may become truly
wise. As we look at the utter poverty which was His from
the first moment of His entry into the world until the
last, we realise that the way of renunciation is the only
way back to God. By suffering the desire for material

CHRIST'S REDEMPTION 53
things to fill his vision man lost the Divitie Vision. When
the Saviour comes to renew man's first estate, He begins
the work of reparation, by the utter rejection of all those
created things which His Own Hands had made ; He
came possessing nothing, that we might possess all things.
He takes the form of a slave to more completely annihilate
Himself, that poor blinded humanity might be won back
from its foolish pride through the example of His humility.
But He is not long in the world before He must fly to
Egypt to escape the hate of His own chosen people.
What an inexplicable embracing of human weakness is
here manifested by Him, through Whose Power all things
are held in being.
And He returns, and thirty years of His Ufe are spent
hidden away, in that insignificant little village of Nazareth.
How useless it all seems to the restless eyes of the un
satisfied and unsatisfying activity of our day. What a
very commonplace round it was, just a little carpentering
of the most ordinary sort. To what purpose was this
waste ? Yet He was working for the salvation of the world
just as much in that secret hidden-away life, as in those
crowded days of His short public ministry, or the fiery
anguish of the Cross.
The world thinks that if a thing cannot be seen it is
nothing. It is scornfully impatient of the cloistered life
of prayer and penance. Whatever do they shut them
selves up for : why not go out and do a little good ? The
world's idea of good is what can be seen, and tabulated ;
aU else is a mere waste of time. Sometimes I even hear
Catholics say: "Fancy a lot of people wasting all their
time in praying 1" So they look at Contemplative Orders
and echo that old proverb : " Can any good thing come out
of Nazareth?" Yes, the One Good Thing did come out
of Nazareth — Redemption came forth of her.
And Redemption is coming forth again and again, out of
those enclosed gardens of prayer, where Grace works in
superabundant measure and reaches forth over the whole
earth. There is not a place in the wide world that can
be barred against it ; it is a force that penetrates the most
hardened heart and does the most impossible things.
Your personal efforts are restricted, but prayer is like the

54 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
spirit, unrestricted in its movements, unrestrained in its
power. But these thirty years come to their close, thirty wasted
years as the world counts them, and the public ministry
begins. It begins strangely, out of due time, as our
Lord says ; the first manifestation of His power was
wrought, although His time had not yet come, at the prayer
of His Mother. The occasion is a wedding. In the midst
of the joyful feast the wine fails, and the watchful eyes of
the Mother perceive the need, her heart beats with pitiful
sympathy for the distressed host, and she speaks the word
to her Son : "They have no wine." She asks nothing,
because she knows His heart as none other can ever know it ;
she is strong in the confidence that she has only to tell
Him the need for Him to supply it. His answer seemed
almost a refusal, although she did not take it so, for im
mediately she says to the servants : ' ' Whatsoever He saith
to you, do it." She read in the Divine eyes the answer
to her quest. And she is not disappointed. He works
the miracle she had sought, and inanimate nature is sub
missive to His command.
Thenceforward He goes and gathers His disciples about
Him. Looking at them the world would say : " Well, He
is no judge of character." The disciples were very self-
centered, astonishingly selfish, strangely ambitious,
striving even amongst themselves as to what place should
be assigned them in His Kingdom ; they loved Him, it is
true, but in a very strange and earthly way.
He calls Judas : He knows all about him, knows his
weakness, his love of money, and yet gives him the charge
of it. He calls them friends, not servants ; He takes them
into the most extraordinarily intimate relationship with
Himself, for three years showers His loving care and
affection upon them.
He knew all their weaknesses and their selfishness ; He
knew exactly how they would behave, knew that one would
sell Him for a few miserable pieces of silver, that another
would deny, with curses, that He knew Him, that all would
leave Him in His supreme need ; despite all this. He loved
them, and gave no sign of what He knew, even to the
traitor.

CHRIST'S REDEMPTION 55
How amazed we are, when we see the instruments He
chooses for His work. He is always amazing all through
the ages, He is amazing still. We cannot make it out,
when we see the people He calls, still less can we make it
out when we see those He does not caU : we think we
should make such a different choice to His — and so we
should — but then, "He knows what is in man" — and we
do not.
When He chooses the Head of His Church, His choice
falls not on St. John, who was nighest to His Heart, but
on St. Peter ; and again we wonder why.
St. Peter, ardent, impetuous and fearful, one in whom
courage and cowardice seem strangely blended — ^it is he
who receives the power of the keys.
He had His Divine purpose in all this. He knows what
a strange mixture we are, how strength and weakness are
ever joined in fellowship within us. For this very reason
He chose St. Peter. St. John would have seemed so
altogether beyond us ; but somehow St. Peter, with his
very human weakness, with his sudden fears, and equally
sudden courage, with his tears and his penitence, appeals
to us, because he is so very much like our own poor selves.
And he did become strong, when the Divine Spirit had
free course within him ; here again there is hope and
encouragement for our own faltering selves, by the same
Spirit by Whom he became strong we may become strong.
The Lord goes through the towns and villages mani
festing His power over nature animate and inanimate.
The very winds and the sea obey Him. The sick return
to health ; the lame walk ; the deaf hear ; the blind see ;
the dead return to life at His command. How crowded
with works of Divine pity and power were those three
years. The works were wonderful and the results were
wonderful. WhUe the poor heard Him gladly, the more He showed
forth His loving pity and mighty power, the steadier grew
the hatred of the good and pious people towards Him.
The Pharisees were the devout of their day, zealous for the
law, upholders of the supernatural; we should have
expected to find in them his most ready and ardent sup
porters. Not at all : they nursed an unrelenting and ever-

56 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
increasing hostility towards Him. They hated, aS only
good people know how to hate. Strange as it may seem,
when good people begin to hate, they do it with a thorough
ness that leaves the children of this world far behind.
Every fresh shewing of Christ's goodness and power
added fresh fuel to the furnace of hate that was glowing in
their hearts ; at last they determine to take away His life.
It was the manifestation of His power over death that
hardened them to determine that nothing less than His
death should satisfy them.
Thus the Saviour comes to the eventide of His earthly
Ufe, to the consummation of His Divine mission: "with
out shedding of blood there is no remission." "We are
not redeemed by corruptible things as silver and gold but
by the Precious Blood of Christ." It is only when the
scarlet flood flows forth in full tide from the Cross that
Redemption long-expected, is accomplished. The sacri
fices of the old law are the sign-posts to Calvary, and their
blood sprinklings picked out the trail leading to the
sacrifice of the Cross.
The Paschal Feast draws nigh, and loving His own. He
loved to the end. He sends on before Him those who
were to make ready the last Passover.
Evening draws on. He sits down and the twelve with
Him; first He fulfils the Paschal rite, that is for ever to
pass away, and afterwards initiates the Sacrifice ; with His
Own Hands He gives Himself, the last and greatest love-
gift to His Own. A little later and they go forth into
the garden, a strange foreboding upon them all.
He leaves all save Peter, James and John ; with them
He enters a little farther into the garden : ' ' Watch here,
while I go yonder and pray, ' ' He says ; He only goes a
stone's cast in front of them, and begins to enter upon His
Agony. How remarkable, despite all their protestations of so
short a while before, they cannot keep their eyes open.
Fear unformed, clothed them with drowsiness; sorrow
and dread overwhelmed them ; their eyes were heavy,
heavy with foreboding and the dread of the coming day.
And there He kneels ; crushed beneath the weight of Sin
He falls to the ground. The horror of the Great Expiation

CHRIST'S REDEMPTION 57
has fastened upon His Soul with aU its piercing and fear
some malignity ; Sin clothes Him, as it were, with a gar
ment. He cries from the black night of His agony :
"Father, if it be possible let this chaUce pass from Me,
but not My wiU, but Thine be done."
All the Sin of all time, from that first sin in the Garden
until the last that man shall commit before the day of
doom, appears before Him, each sin separate and distinct,
with a vividness harder and clearer than that of a photo
graph, in aU its unmasked malignity and unutterable vile-
ness and loathsome repulsiveness : very different from the
Devil's painted picture of seductive beauty whereby he has
fooled his dupes from the beginning until now to soften its
cruel outUne. He was sinless, and He saw sin come so
near to Him that He seemed Himself to be Sin. "The
deep waters have come in even unto my soul, I stick fast
in the deep mire where no ground is, all thy waves have
gone over me."
Great drops of blood force their way through every pore
and He falls three times to earth, bathed in that sweat.
Man's sin was wrought in a garden, so was his restoration.
Three times He comes to the watchers, only to find
them sleeping. "Peter, sleepest thou?" Yes: it is he
who but a little before had so confidently declared he would
go to prison and death with His Lord, who now fails even
to watch through these few moments of awful vigil in the
Garden. The third time all is over: "Sleep on now, and take
your rest." While He is yet speaking, the gloom of the
Garden is lit up with the flare of torches ; led by the
miserable traitor, the soldiers, with their attendant rabble,
burst in upon the little band.
For a moment there is a feeble show of resistance, then
all forsake Him and flee, and He is left alone in the hands
of His enemies. Those who but a short time before had
promised so much, perform so Uttle ; it is often so.
Through the long hours of that awful night He is dragged
from Judge to Judge, beaten, tortured, tormented, spat
upon ; all the venomous hate, long pent up, is poured out
upon Him without stint. In the early hours of the morn
ing He is fastened to the Pillar and the cruel thongs of

58 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
the Roman soldiery tear their way mercilessly through the
quivering flesh, like the harrow of a plough crossing a
field : ' ' The ploughers ploughed upon my back and made
deep furrows," "from the crown of my head to the soles
of my feet there is no whole part in Me." When the
laceration of that cruel scourging was at last ended, the
Sacred Body was one great red wound.
Then the thorns are crushed down upon His Head in
cruel mockery, piercing through to the bone ; the purple
robe is cast about Him, and Pilate brings the poor tor
tured Figure forward to the gaze of the multitude.
' ' Behold your King ! ' ' Maddened with the blind fury
of their hate, they rend the air with their cries : ' ' Away
with Him. We will not have this Man to reign over us.
We have no king but Caesar." Pilate strives to reason,
but all the cruel, savage fanaticism of the Eastern mob is
raised and can only be satiated with blood. They are beside
themselves, maddened to such fury of passionate hatred
that they cry : "His blood be on us and on our children.
Away with Him, crucify, crucify!"
Like wild beasts frenzied at the sight of blood, the
scarlet trickle from that thorn-crowned Head intensifies
their savage cruelty a thousandfold. "Crucify, crucify!"
fills the air with its ceaselessly monotonous rhythmic tem
pest of sound. Pilate is cowed as he beholds the blood lust
in their eyes ; their voices and the voices of the Chief
Priests prevail and Jesus is delivered to their will.
How fickle a thing is human nature ; how fickle the
emotions of a crowd. Those who shriek, on fire with
blood-lust, are the self-same multitude that acclaimed Him
with such exultation but a few days before. Then it was
Hosanna ! blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the
Lord ! ' ' Now it is " Crucify, Crucify ! ' ' What a contrast
between Palm Sunday and Good Friday !
And what a choice ; " Not this Man but Barrabas."
Now Barrabas was a robber.
Jesus is led forth along the way to Calvary. What a
lesson those two processions have to teach. On Palm
Sunday He came in with waving of palm branches and
children singing. On Good Friday He goes out with a
fierce blasphemous mob raining blows and curses and every

CHRIST'S REDEMPTION 59
kind of horrid insult that satanic malignity can suggest on
His poor tortured figure. It is the same Person, it is the
same crowd. Rising and falling, marking His passage in
the Scarlet of His Blood, at length He arrives at the Hill
of Calvary.
The Cross is prepared and He is laid upon it. The
nails crush their cruel way through flesh and sinew : He
is fastened to the wood and lifted up on the gibbet, whence
life shall flow to all flesh.
As the Rood with its living burden, shaken with awful
torture, is let down into the socket. He cries "Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do !" Shiver
ing as the Poor Body is in every nerve and sinew with
unutterable torment, exhausted by the stream of blood
flowing in such abundant measure. His only cry is one of
pity and pardon.
" Forgive them, for they know not what they do !" Of
course they know not what they do, or they would never
have done it : their eyes are blinded by the Devil so that
they cannot see, their passions raised to a blazing frenzy of
insensate hate : indeed they know not what they do, for
did they know, their savage fury would be stilled to silence.
And our sin drives the nails in hands and feet, presses
down the thorns on His Sacred Head, and crucifies the
Lord a second time.
As it was then, so has it been ever since : the eyes of
the sinner are blinded by the glittering fascination that
the Devil casts around sin; and all the while they are
sinning He is pleading "they know not what they do."
What a tremendous example has He left us, shewing how
we are to act when others afflict and injure us.
With a great struggle perhaps we forgive them. Let
us remember our Saviour's words : "They know not what
they do." And when we are sore stricken, and bitter
thoughts struggle to rise in our heart, and bitter words
strive for utterance, call to mind Jesus 's loving forgiveness
of His murderers, when they were making Him fast with
savage malignity to the wood ; then we shaU stifle our
thoughts, and words will die unuttered on our lips, and
something of the Divine forgiveness will be reflected in our
soul.

6o SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
How strangely men forgot the Divine lesson during the
fury of war. Good devout people at home gave forth
sentiments that were no reflection of Calvary, while men
on the battle front did not find it hard to forgive : rarely,
if ever, you heard a word of bitterness there.
He has given most things : He has given His Love, He
has given Himself, He is giving His Life ; He has one
gift yet ungiven. His Mother. And He chooses this
moment of torment in which to give away the only consola
tion He has yet remaining.
Love is always giving, always looking to see what else it
has to give.
That Mother stands beneath the Cross on Calvary,
watching the dying of her Son, just as she had stood beside
Him in the cattle shed. Her soul is wrung out with the
unutterable agony of His Passion and His wounds ; His
racking torments, and inexpressible pain are reproduced
in her soul in all their fearful intensity. Every pang that
pierces His Heart pierces hers ; she stands there, the
Martyr-Mother, sword-pierced, one with Him in His
Passion. She would not take back one pang or one
stroke, although each wounds her as it wounds Him. The
first Fiat of long ago, when as a young girl she made the
great response, is hers still. She has no will save His.
"Behold thy Mother." The Eyes of Infinite love and
tenderness are fastened first on the Mother and then on
the Disciple. She is all He has to give, and now He gives
her to His Own, to be their Mother too. He would share
all He has with us, and so He will share that Mother's love
with us and give her with His parting breath as His Love
Gift to the Church His Bride.
The darkness overspreads the whole earth ; the sun
hides his face, and the mighty overshadowing is a darkness
that may be felt. The cruel, cursing mob surging around
the Cross is awed to silence in that preternatural darkness,
and a chilling fear begins to strike the heart of this savage
Eastern throng.
Out of that darkness comes a piercing cry; "My God,
My God: Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" The outer
darkness is the shadow of the inner darkness, which hid
the Face of God from the Soul of the Sin-bearer.

CHRIST'S REDEMPTION 6i
He is left to tread "the winepress of the wrath of God "
alone. He is shut out from the sight of His Father, sur
rounded, penetrated by the blackness of sin, now so close
to His Soul, that it seems part of Himself. To the
anguish of that tortured body, parched and blazing with
fever, racked in every joint and bone and sinew with pain
unutterable, clothed from head to foot in the Red Robe
of His Blood, is added the far more awful torment of His
Soul. Soul and body were upheld by the Divinity in their
double pain, or death would have come long ago, but there
was no sense of that support in the Soul, which only felt
the bitter darkness of total abandonment.
Until we reach eternity we shall never understand the
meaning of that exceeding bitter cry.
His Body was endowed with a sensitiveness to pain
exceeding that of any other, there was a responsiveness
to the least touch, beyond all that we can conceive — it was
a body made ready for the sacrifice : "A body Thou hast
prepared me" ; and also a soul, so exquisitely balanced,
so wonderful in all perfection, that sin produced in her
refinements of horror past imagining : "He who knew no
sin was made to sin for us."
God sometimes calls souls to share something of that
darkness, to become partakers in the Abandonment of
Calvary. " Can you drink of the chalice that I shall drink
of?" Thus He speaks to the soul whom He has chosen
for such special conformity to His Passion.
There are awful contrasts of light and dark in the
spiritual life, and, of all experiences, that desolating dark
ness, that awful sense of utter forsakenness in the midst
of the night of horror, is one of the most glorious and the
most terrible that the soul is called upon to undergo. She
stands alone, forsaken alike by Heaven and Earth.
In that amazingly dreadful moment of the Passion, when
the Saviour drained the chalice of His Dereliction to the
very dregs. His Soul, although unknowing, was all the
while upheld by His Divinity ; so God is supporting the
soul through the hours of her dereliction, although she per
ceives nothing of this, thinking herself to be abandoned
for ever by Him. God conceals His support that the sacri
fice may be complete, just as He did on Calvary.

62 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
The sacrifice hastens to its consummation : a little while
and with a loud cry He commends His Soul to His Father,
and the Body is left in the rigidity of death. The work of
Redemption is accomplished. Every drop of His Blood
has been shed, and He has blotted out in that Blood the
handwriting that was against us, nailing it to His Cross.
Calvary looks the most utter failure that poor human
eyes have ever beheld. Only a few brave women and St.
John have stood there to see the end. Christ's enemies
seem to have triumphed : they have had the blood for
which they thirsted and cried with such unrelenting eager
ness. Really it was the most gloriously magnificent triumph.
By that great all-sufficing sacrifice the Devil's kingdom
is shattered, his power broken, sin and death flung down
to Hell and a royal way opened right up to the throne of
God in the Scarlet of the Saviour's Blood.
That Redemption is so superabundant that it would
suffice for the redeeming of a million worlds like this, if
such there be to redeem.
'^ Blood whereof one drop for humankind outpour'd,
Might from all transgression have the world restored."
The black day of man's foul sin is blotted out in the
splendid shining of this day's Redemption.
The Sacrifice of Calvary and the Sacrifice of the Mass
are one self-same sacrifice, and wherever the Mass is
offered the One All Sufficient Sacrifice is offered for the
sins of the whole world.
There is only the great Now in Eternity, and Calvary is
the everlasting now, it is.
When this Great Sacrifice is uplifted, we touch reality ;
just for that brief moment, time and space and distance
vanish into nothingness in the presence of the Great Salva
tion. When the brazen serpent, the figure of Redemption,
was lifted up in the desert, it was those who looked that
lived. Dying eyes beheld that figure and beholding found
life in the sight. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, to
day and for ever. Looking at Him, beholding His
tremendous sacrifice, we live. Life comes into the soul
through that look. It is by looking, not by reasoning,
that we find Ufe in His Name.

CHRIST'S REDEMPTION 63
He is our Life, our Redemption, everything. We look
up at that Figure, scarlet-robed in His Blood on the Rood,
and draw our life from Him. Blood is the life, and it is
by His blood that we live. Blood is our natural life. Blood
is our supernatural life. By that all-atoning tide our soul
is cleansed from the foul image of sin and restored to His
own Divine likeness. How He has loved me : He gave
Himself for me. He drained the last drop of His Blood for
me. He suffered in my stead and endured all the wrath of
God in His Own Body on the tree, and by death destroyed
death. His love simply overwhelms me in the depth of its in
exhaustible tenderness. Every blow that should have
fallen on me has fallen on Him. How can I repay love
such as this ? How can I give anything less than all ?
How contemptibly insignificant and miserably paltry are
all the vain things that have charmed this poor foolish
heart of mine, when I view them in the Light of His
amazing, measureless love for such a wretch as I. What
can I do but fling them from me with loathing, hating
myself for having even for a moment, weighed them
against the Immensity of His Infinite Love ?
One day, through His merits, I trust to enter that city
which has God and the Lamb for the Light of it and to
take my place with the Blood-washed throng, to sing for
ever the praise of the ' ' Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world." Then I shall love Him as I ought.

CHAPTER vn
THE BRIDE
From the tree of the Garden came death, from the tree
of the Cross came life. The Son of God, raised upon the
Cross, balanced the greatness of His Love against the guilt
of the world, Love outweighing a million times all the load
of sin.
That scarlet flood flowing from the Hill of Calvary
brings Life and Redemption to all who are washed in its
tide, and the Church is the river-bed.
All the graces of the Holy Ghost, all the fulness of
Christ's salvation, comes to us through the Church. And
thus the Church is something more than an organisation, it
is an organism ; a living body, with a living spirit within her.
The Holy Ghost is the life of this organism, as the soul
is the life of the body. All the external manifestation of
the Church's life has its origin from the Living Spirit
within. She is Spirit-led, Spirit-taught, Spirit-quickened
by this mighty Indweller, Who holds the more than
300,000,000 souls of which she is composed, in unity, just
as the spirit within us holds our body in unity.
As our body is composed of a multitude of cells, so is
the body of the Church composed of a multitude of souls ;
each soul partaking of the life of her body, as each cell
partakes of the life of our body. If a cell ceases to par
take of the body's life, it ceases to live, and if a soul
ceases to partake of the Ufe of the Mystical Body, she
ceases to live.
This Church is one, in the sense that she is the only
one, and beside her there is no other. In her alone does
the Holy Spirit dwell as in His Home, operating and
working through every part. She is one, unique, solitary ;
there is none other Uke to her. She is one body because
there is one spirit.
She is one, because Christ is one : there is as little
possibility of the existence of two Churches as of two Gods
64

THE BRIDE 65
or two Redeemers. There are external evidences by
which we may know her. He has set His seal upon her, —
fourfold, like the four limbs of His Cross, that all may see
and know her for His Own, and through them perceive
the presence of the Life-giving Spirit within her.
She is one in the possession of a visible unity that can
be apprehended by the external senses, one also in that
her life through all the ages shews her always as identical
with that first creation, when from the open Side of the
Saviour on Calvary there flowed forth blood and water,
and that Blood is her life as it is the life of every soul
within her. Just as from the side 9f Adam was formed
Eve, so from the side of the Saviour was fashioned the
Church, His Bride. And as by the breathing-in of the
spirit into Eve's body she became a living soul, so like
wise on the first Pentecostal morn the Holy Ghost took
possession of her body, and the Church began her life.
The Church's Unity is organic. A bundle of sticks tied
together by a string has unity of a sort ; a number of
things frozen together are united for the moment : but the
string is cut and the sun melts the ice, then the unity no
longer exists. But the unity of the Church is that of a
living organism, essential and not accidental. The Saviour
prayed that her unity might be such as existed between
Himself and the Father, and that was the possession of
one self-same nature: "Neither pray I for these alone,
but for all those who through their word shall believe in
Me, that they may all be one, as We are One, that the
world may know that Thou hast sent Me."
Now we see that this unity is something that can be
externally manifested, because the world is to be convinced
through the evidence of this fact, and as the world has no
capacity to discern spiritual things it is incapable of appre
hending a spiritual unity unless the fact of that spiritual unity
is externally manifested. "I will give you the Spirit of
Truth, Who shall guide you into all truth, WTiom the world
cannot receive because it neither perceiveth nor knoweth
Him." The presence of the Spirit is only known without
by external manifestation from within, in the same way as
the spirit in our body evidences its presence by external
sign without. f

66 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
This mighty organism, with its more than three
hundred million souls, gathered out of every people,
nation, kindred and tongue under Heaven, "in the world
yet not of it," overflowing the boundaries of every nation
and exceeding the barriers of every state, manifests a
unity that is unUke anything else of which we have
cognizance. Go where you will, to cities of the most un
pronounceable names, to lands speaking the most
inconceivable tongues, and there you will find this marvel
lous organism at work ; she is the living realization of
the truth that " God has made of one blood all they that
dwell on the earth ' ' for she excludes none and embraces
aU. With her there is "neither Jew nor Greek, bond or
free" : wherever a living soul is to be found, that soul is
to be incorporated into her life, helped with aU the power
of the Divine Spirit, and prepared for the final glory of
perfect union with the Divinity in Heaven. Her business
is to people Heaven with ransomed souls, to make nigh
through the Blood of Christ all those who are afar off, and
give them feUowship with the Saints on earth and in
Heaven. Her Faith is the same for all, wise and foolish, learned
and simple ; to all alike she declares the whole council
of God ; the Faith is one and the same in the heart of
London, or the heart of China : she has one Faith and
only one, one Way, one Redemption, one Salvation ;
and this she proclaims with the same insistence in every
land and every clime, with the same unfaltering voice in
the twentieth century as in the first. There is neither
doubt nor hesitation in her message. Christ Jesus the
Lord, to the Jews a stumbling-block, to the Greeks foolish
ness — but to them that believe, Christ the Power of God
and the Wisdom of God.
She has no accommodation to offer, nor any recon
struction of her Faith to make ; her Faith was the whole
Truth of God two thousand years ago, neither more nor
less : it is such to-day. The same living spirit teaches
her to-day who taught her then : she teaches not the
cunningly-devised fables of men, but the infallible Word
of God.
You may enquire in what land you will and of whom you

THE BRIDE 67
like, and you will always receive the same response. One
Saviour, one means of Redemption, — the Blood of the
God-man. There is not a shadow of difference as to the
facts of Faith, no matter what the difference in learning,
condition or colour may be. Black and White, Brown and
Blue, and any other colours there be, the wisest professor
and the poorest beggar, alike possess the same saving
Faith. By this Faith the Church teaches all her children what
they must believe and what they must do — what they must
believe, because unless they know what to believe they
cannot tell what they must do. It is only after the hearing
that the soul can cry out : " What must I do to be saved ?"
And there is an intimate relation between Faith and
Action. To be Living, Faith must be translated into Act,
since Faith without works is dead. It is not enough to
know the Truth, we must live it, and the Holy Ghost is
in the Church to give both light to see and strength to
do. The Church is not a mere sign-post, pointing the
way and offering no means to attain it. She is both the
way and the means : Spirit-taught as to what to say, and
Spirit-quickened likewise to do.
From the first this marvellous unity has ever been hers ;
the unity of the First Pentecost when ' ' all they that
believed were of one heart and mind," has been increas
ingly manifested with the passing of the ages, and is more
arresting and more evident to-day than ever before.
True, there have been those who have gone out of her
because not of her, but this is rather testimony to her
unity than evidence against her. Had she been accom
modating, she might have retained within her embrace
both individuals and nations who are now without; but
the Holy Ghost within her would suffer no compromise
with truth, since she came into the world, Uke her Lord,
to bear witness to the Truth.
She is one through the communication of the Body of
the Lord, by which each soul is incorporated into the
Christ-life, that as He lives by the Father, so they also
live by Him. One, through the ministry by which the
whole body is governed in due order, from the Holy Father
down through all the ranks of the Sacred Hierarchy. The

68 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
wonders wrought by Grace through this ministry we can
see day by day and in every land. A ministry so sublime
that Angels might fear to embrace it, committed to earthen
vessels, that the glory of God might the more appear.
When the tremendous significance of this office is realized,
man might well dread to embrace it, seeing the over
whelming demands it makes ; but with the call is given
likewise the indwelling strength of the Holy Ghost to fulfil it
As the Bride of Christ manifests her unity to the world,
so she manifests her sanctity. It is true that the things
of the spirit are only spiritually apprehended, but just as
the unity of the Church can be recognised externally, so
can her sanctity. She calls all her chfldren to be saints,
she exists for nothing else, since her one end is to bring
all her children into union with her God.
All her teaching is directed to the attainment of sanctity,
but she not only calls her children to sanctity, she offers
to each and all the means to attain it. The Sacraments
and prayer, these are the means she offers to all, by which
they may ascend to the heights of the supernatural life.
The gate by which souls enter the supernatural life is
Baptism, whereby, re-born of water and the Spirit, they
begin to live to God. There is also the participation in
the Body of the Lord, by which Christ dwells in them and
they in Him, and, nourished by His Own Divine Self,
advance day by day till they are reformed to the express
image of His likeness.
But not alone does she call her children to sainthood
and provide them the means of obtaining it, but she has
a multitude no man can number who in their own lives
manifest sanctity in the most sublime and heroic degree.
For sanctity is the oneing of the soul with God. In full
perfection it means this : the soul, even in this vale of
tears, has her life in God, her will so oned with His that
she does not swerve from it, even in desire.
Souls such as these are God's saints. Some are
canonized, and the story of their triumph is told for our
consolation and encouragement. But we must not think
for a moment that the Saints are restrained within the
narrow limits of a calendar; every calendar, no matter
how full it be, must have its All Saints Day, for the days

THE BRIDE 69
of the year are utterly inadequate to celebrate the glories
of that unnumbered host who make up the vast roll of
the Saints of God.
Sanctity, as we have said, is union of the soul with God.
The extraordinary manifestations God has given through
so many of His Saints, their wonderful power over nature
animate and inanimate, are special gifts bestowed on
account of their mission rather than on account of their
sanctity : the very shadow of Peter falling on the sick
restored them to health.
These are the external signs of the presence of God's
Spirit, and that Spirit is working in the Church to-day,
and in the same mairellous way as at the first.
While we look at the sanctity of the Church we are
met with an astounding and amazing sight. The Drunkard,
the Harlot, the Sinner of every type — ^are the brothers and
sisters of the Saints, because brothers and sisters of Jesus.
How can you possibly reconcile the presence of saint and
sinner, sinfulness and sinlessness, in this Church whose
boast is the hoUness of her children ?
There are good people who are aghast ; like the servants
in the parable, they want to uproot the tares that seem
to have sprung up so plentifully amidst the wheat and in
their impetuous haste would root up the wheat along with
them. This is an old enthusiasm. The good people
were shocked at the sight of the Saviour not only sitting
with publicans and sinners but actually eating with them.
It was a disreputable crowd that pressed around Him,
and the guests sitting at the table were scandalized at the
shameless entrance of the woman that was a sinner into
their most respectable company.
England is rather like that. Religion and respectability
have become interchangeable terms. The good people
are before all things eminently respectable, and most
anxious that no disreputable sinner shall shame their
gatherings. But Saints draw sinners, strange though it may seem,
because sinners are sure that Saints will understand them,
and so they are not afraid to draw nigh. There is a hard
sort of goodness that repels but never attracts poor broken
humanity.

70 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
Infinite Sanctity drew sinners just because of His
sanctity. They knew His All-pitiful Heart would com
passionate their misery and that He would stretch forth
His Hand to heal, to pardon and forgive.
See that most appeaUng scene, where the good people
bring the poor woman taken in adultery, in the very act,
and with a callous shamelessness of which only the pious
could possibly be capable, set her in the midst. But He
raises not even His eyes to look at her : He will not
inflict that wound on the poor sinner ; but when con
demned by their own hearts they have all gone forth, He
speaks the word of peace : ' ' Neither do I condemn thee ;
go in peace, and sin no more."
The most matchless manifestation of the sanctity of the
Bride is her exhaustless pity for sinners; like her Lord
she does not cast them out, but stretches charity almost
beyond breaking-point to draw them in, uplift and help
them up the steep ascent to HoUness and Heaven. She
never despairs, even up to the last, trusting that in the very
moment of the severance of soul and body, the sinner,
however great his crime, may yet make an act of contrition
and so find pardon although all but engulfed in the pit of
Hell. She looks eagerly, wistfully for the smallest sign
from eye, lips, or hand of the dying sinner, as a token
of repentance, rejoicing if she may snatch at the last a
brand from the burning, a soul from the Devil's grasp.
And her Catholicity is as wonderful as her Sanctity.
She embraces all the world in her ministrations ; there is
not a nation or a people excluded from her inexhaustible
zeal and untiring energy. The Divine Command to
preach the Gospel and disciple all nations she fulfils with
the same eager fervour after two thousand years have
passed as she did at the beginning. Over the earth her
children speed with unwearied devotion to bring the
Gospel message with its blessed peace to the souls of men.
None other is found like her in all the earth ; the only
one embracing all mankind.
There remains one other external sign of her inner life.
She is the Church of the first Apostles of the Lord, un
changed and unchanging midst all the changing things of
time. She is ApostoUc.

THE BRIDE <7i
She has never reconstructed her theology and she never
will. She cannot be other in the twentieth century than
she was in the first. She will not soften the "hard say
ings of the Gospel" because men do not like them : she
declares all the truth of God ; she will hold nothing back ;
her work is to witness to the truth, not to alter it.
A young student, fired with the new ideas, met an old
labourer out in the country, and began expounding his
theories of human progress. Of course religion must pro
gress too : this old out-of-date Catholic Church must give
place to something more enlightened, something more
acceptable to the cultivated taste of to-day. The old man
let him ramble on and when he had finished, looking up
at the sun in the heavens, said, "Well, the sun does not
change, and I don't think Almighty God changes either."
So to the restless longing for change, the Bride of
Christ opposes the eternal never-changing truth of God.
Then others declare she is ever-changing, and always
innovating, that ever and again she joins some new dog
matic definition to the old, so that the faith she preaches
varies with the passing of the years.
That is because they confound Truth and Definition.
The whole Truth of God was there from the first instant
of her life, but its definition has come through conflicts
with false friends within and foes without, through revela
tions received by the Saints from God, bringing into fuller
light and clearer detail all the marvellous beauty of His
Truth. To behold more clearly and completely the per
fection of a picture is not to add anything to it ; we
could not observe that perfection if it was not there for
us to see.
It is thus that the Bride looks with loving eye upon that
Truth committed to her by the Bridegroom, and the more
she looks, the more she sees of its inexhaustible perfection^
Each new beauty as it appears leads on to others yet un
seen, but she never sees anything that was not in the
Divine Picture from the first, and she never looks upon
another. If men desire to present another to her gaze,
she answers with the great Apostle : ' ' Though an angel
from heaven preach another Gospel than that which has
been preached, let him be anathema."

72 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
Such is the Bride viewed from without, and wonderful
as is the sight, it bears no comparison to her marvellous
Spirit-life within. There the Holy Ghost Himself is
engaged in the great work of transforming souls into the
very life of God. This work never slackens, but goes
forward with ever-quickening pace as the final consumma
tion of all things draws near. Her life on earth has been
all a warfare, and from her first beginning she has been in
unceasing conflict, with the Saducees who thought her too
supernatural, and with the Pharisees who thought her not
supernatural enough. Kings and the great ones of the
earth have stood up against her ; they have cried that
she sought to rob them of their power and to subjugate
them to her sway, that her children could not be faithful
to them and to her ; they have fought against her and
have not prevailed.
They said she was too worldly-wise and too wisely
foolish, both too interfering and not interfering enough,
that she was too much of earth and too much of heaven,
too wrapt in Eternity, too absorbed in time.
She has passed through fierce and awful conflicts;
there have been moments in her life when her enemies
have felt that at last her time had come ; but she arose
victorious, yet with the scars of her dreadful wounds upon
her, unconquered and unconquerable.
At other times she seemed to have vanquished all her
foes with such completeness, that her enemies exclaimed :
" See how we prevail nothing against her, all the world
has gone after her."
But whether in the exultation of victory or the humilia
tion of seeming defeat, she is ever serene and confident,
for she has the Holy Ghost within her and knows He can
not fail.
Her enemies have striven to trap her in her speech, and
to twist and distort her words ; all the craft of Hell has
been employed against her, and yet she stands erect and
triumphant, sees her most malignant and cruel foes
prostrate in the dust ; no weapons formed against her have
prospered, none ever shall.
Her mightiest conflict is yet to be, for like her Lord
her face is set stedfastly to Jerusalem, where her passion

THE BRIDE 73
is to be accomplished. Like Him she is to be crucified,
and like Him to come through death to her deathless
triumph and to her perfect consummation in Heaven.
But our view of the Bride would be very imperfect if
we Hmited it to her life of warfare with the powers of
darkness on earth : the most glorious life of the Bride
is not on earth, but in Heaven. Her earthly life is
transient and she hastens with impatient step to that final
triumph when the numbers of God's elect shall be made
up and her strife on earth be done. St. John in prophetic
vision beheld the day, and saw her descending out of
Heaven from God as a bride adorned for her husband.
Mark that vast host that through the ages has been
pouring in through the golden gates, having washed their
robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.
They live their life in God, participators in His Divinity,
and whither they have arrived, we too, with all God's Elect
shall one day come to partake of the Marriage Supper of
the Lamb.

CHAPTER VHI
SOME FIRST NOTIONS OF PRAYER
Of all the wonderful gifts of God to man, surely prayer
is one of the greatest. In the Church, His Bride, He
gives His Grace through prayer and the Sacraments. The
marvellous thing about prayer is, that there is no time and
no place in which we may not pray ; we cannot receive the
Sacraments just whenever we will, but whenever we will
we can pray, and so supremely important is it that the
Apostle calls upon us to pray always.
How shall we describe this most blessed grace of
prayer ? It is the loving converse of the soul with God ;
it is the uplifting of the soul into God ; or the loving be
holding of God, as others express it.
Beginning with the first simple experiences, prayer
carries the soul on and ever up, until finally she reaches
that Blessed Union, even in this life, of which mere words
can convey no conception.
The soul-word and the spoken-word have a relation with
each other, in so far as the spoken-word is the external
expression of the concept of the soul. The spoken-word
differs in different lands, but the soul or mind-word is
the same in all : if a Frenchman and Englishman and
Chinaman were to think of a clock, the mind-word would
be the same in all ; the conception formed in the mind of
all three would be exactly the same ; but if they gave utter
ance to their thought, each would express it by a different
sound. It is so in prayer, which is sometimes expressed by
means of the voice and is vocal, or voice-prayer, and some
times remains immanent in the soul, and is mind-prayer,
or mental prayer.
The way we make known our thoughts to each other is
by way of speech, through the spoken word, for without
speech the thought can only remain in the mind and can
not pass to another.
But God is a Spirit and needs no utterance of ours to
74

SOME FIRST NOTIONS OF PRAYER 75
make known our desires to Him ; He knows the most
secret motions of the heart and all our needs before we
speak to Him.
But vocal prayer has been blessed and accepted by Him,
when it is the outward expression of the inward desire of
the soul. The mere utterance of devout sounds, if the
heart goes not with them, is both meaningless and only
an insult to the great Creator and loving Lord with whom
we would converse.
Prayer falls into two great divisions (i) the solemn
public prayer of the mystical Bride, uttered with the voiqe,
the prayer of the whole corporate body of God's elect on
earth, and (2) private prayer, the intimate and personal
intercourse between each individual soul and her Lord.
The value the Church sets upon prayer may be realised,
when we remember that all priests and religious set apart
for this great work, which the founder of Western
Monasticism called "The Work of God," are bound to
the recital of the Divine Office under pain of mortal sin.
They are set apart for a public work, to be the voice of
the mystical body of Christ, sending forth her ceaseless
round of praise and petition, laud and thanksgiving unto
the Great Lord of all.
Public prayer does not depend on the number of those
offering it, but upon those who offer it having been
solemnly appointed to this office. One duly appointed
praying alone is offering public prayer, while a number
together may be only offering private prayer.
The Divine Office is the foundation of this wonderful
circle of prayer, with its Psalter of David, that incom
parable outpouring of the soul to God, without equal in the
literature of the world. When we read these matchless
expressions of the hopes and fears, the joys and the
sorrows of his soul, or the passion of his repentance we
understand the sense in which David is spoken of as ' ' the
man after God's own heart."
Listen to the cry that comes from him in that exquisitely
sorrowful fiftieth Psalm : "Have mercy upon me, O God,
after Thy great mercy, and according to the multitude of
Thy mercies blot out mine iniquity. " " Against Thee
only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight." And

76 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
again : ' ' Make in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a
right spirit within me." With what perfection he gives
utterance to those emotions that overwhelm the soul, when
she has really come to a knowledge of herself, seen her
miserable ingratitude, despicable meanness and senseless
folly. And that last most pleading verse : ' ' The sacrifice
of God is a troubled spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O
God, shalt Thou not despise." No wonder that Psalm
became one of the favourite prayers of the Children of
Israel in their exile at Babylon, and that, like a Doxology,
they added those last two verses, to express the sorrowful
longing of their hearts: " O be favourable and generous
unto Syon : build Thou the walls of Jerusalem."
These Psalms were the comfort and consolation of God's
ancient church through all her vicissitudes, in her moments
of triumph, in her moments of grief and blank despair ;
no wonder they passed on to the true Bride as a most
precious heritage, and that she has used them to express
all the most ardent aspirations of her children and made
them the very frame-work of that round of prayer and
praise which through the years she ever offers to the Lord.
These spiritual songs of our exile have been the strength
and stay of God's people these two thousand years,
expressing all the emotions of the human heart in all its
ever-changing and ever-varying experience ; always ade
quate, always meetly voicing the profoundest depths of
spiritual joy and sorrow, they have been sung alike in
moments of overmastering and overshadowing grief, and in
moments of intoxicating joy ; and as our Hfe stretches out
towards its ending, and we look back, we can see how
wonderfully the spirit has spoken to us through them.
They come to us hallowed with a thousand most precious
and sacred associations ; they reach back through all the
ages of the past, they reach forward to ages yet to be,
equally fitting our moments of most rapturous exaltation
and most heart-breaking sorrow.
And the Bride has broidered them with precious orna
ment of antiphons and hymns and canticles weaving them
together into one majestic whole in the slow passing of the
years. Each century has added somewhat to this precious
store.

SOME FIRST NOTIONS OF PRAYER 77
How lovingly has the Bride composed this liturgical
circle of the year, celebrating the life-story of the Bride
groom, heralding His coming in the solemn season of
Advent with the marvellous series of antiphons expressive
of her ardent longing ; rejoicing in the glorious festival of
His Nativity ; on the Epiphany celebrating His showing to
the Gentiles ; thence, through the succeeding days, telling
forth the story of His hidden and public life ; through the
great forty days, setting forth His conflict with the powers
of darkness ; the brief triumph of Palm Sunday ; the
tremendous Sacrifice of Calvary ; the glory of His Resur
rection and His triumphant Ascension into Heaven.
After the story of the Bridegroom, she tells of her own
birth at Pentecost, sings the wonders of the Most Precious
Body at Corpus Christi, and scatters through the year the
feasts of His Saints, like jewels on some glorious diadem,
welding it all into one glorious and exultant act of loving
praise and adoration to the Lamb.
Such is the public liturgy which the Bride offers as her
tribute to the Bridegroom. In solemn choirs of cloistered
monks and nuns, in the brooding splendour of vast cathe
drals or solitary and alone in most unexpected spots, this
great chorus of adoration is ever rising up before the
Throne of God. There have been monasteries of old time
where the voice of prayer was never silent by day or night,
an earthly reflection of the adoring worship of Heaven.
You who have this precious privilege of forming part of the
Royal Court of the King, have reason to be full of grati
tude that He has chosen you for this work. As you sing
these praises in the choir, ever and again will the Spirit
show you new meaning in these inspired utterances of
long ago, a light will suddenly flash upon you and you
wUl wonder it had never come before. These are the
inexhaustible treasures of His Glory, and every day as it
passes you will realise more and more how precious they are,
and also His goodness in calling you to sing here below
to the praise of His Glory.
But we must pass on to that other prayer, the private
individual intercourse of the soul with her Creator and
Redeemer. No forms are prescribed for none are needed. I cannot

78 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
help thinking how much souls have been hindered in their
approach to God by the strange tendency to confound
public and private prayer together, and try to apply to
one that which belongs to the other.
The solemn liturgical worship of Public Prayer is the
state solemnity in the Court of the King ; private prayer
the intimate converse of the King with His friends.
I always dread the appearance of another prayer-book,
we are flooded with them already ; for it seems to
me that they do more to stifle prayer than help it.
When we come to talk to our King, He wants to hear the
real aspirations of our hearts, not what other people have
printed for us to say to Him.
We want fewer prayer-books and more prayer.
Alas ! how often we hear : " Oh, I've got such a lot to
get through, I must set to work at once !" And that is
just what it is, "getting through" a mass of most
excellently conceived utterance, which, most likely, does
not in the least express the needs of the soul who is using
it. The spirit of prayer is stifled and strangled in this
atmosphere of print. Our Fathers had no prayer-books,
and manuscripts were few and far between, but they did
know how to pray, because not held back, crushed and
overburdened with a mass of vocal prayers, uttered too
often without either head or heart having any place in
them. No : let us just become like little children, and speak
to our God, with something of that lovable simplicity that
children have. God is not going to look critically, like a
schoolmaster, at the grammar of our prayers. He desires
to hear our heart speaking, and wants us to come to Him
with the loving trustful confidence of a child to his mother.
The first thing we need is Simplicity. You know how
simple children are, how delightful the frank fearlessness
with which they give utterance to their thoughts. God
wants the like of us ; direct, straight and simple should
be the speech we have with Him. The second is Reality.
There is nothing we hate so much as affectation and pre
tence, the mere playing of a part. But if, in intercourse
with each other, we find it is so repellent, how much more
hateful it is when we have to do with The Eternal Reality

SOME FIRST NOTIONS OF PRAYER 79
Himself. Above all else, let us be real. Strange as it
may seem, people often appear to think they must express
themselves in an unreal way when they come to speak
with God. They must say things they do not in the least
mean, and very often only succeed in deceiving themselves.
A certain congregation were singing with tremendous
fervour : "0 Paradise, 0 Paradise, I greatly long for
thee," and as the volume of sound rolled up to the organ
loft, the caustic old organist remarked : ' ' They would be
frightened out of their wits if they found themselves there :
they are quite satisfied to hold on here as long as they
can." And there was much truth in his criticism.
What is the good of saying to God, " I would rather die
a thousand deaths than commit one venial sin ! " if the
speaker hasn't the least idea of wanting to do anything
of the sort.
It may be, when we are real, we shall be rather ashamed
of ourselves. Away with all this affectation and let us
get right down to the foundation : let us be straight and
true, tell God everything that is in our heart — all our
hopes and desires — and never say to Him what we do not
mean. That is quite a different thing to what we do not
feel : what we feel is of little importance. What we
mean, what we will, is all important.
Then let us have Actuality in our prayers. Speak to
Him of the real actual things that concern us here and
now. "What things?" you may say. Everything: for
there is not a thing that concerns us that does not concern
Him. He is interested in everything that concerns us :
any little temporal trial, every little cross, every little
disappointment, all the manifold irritations and petty little
troubles of our daily round : He is concerned in them all.
He wants us to tell Him all about them, although He
knows everything already ; it is through prayer that He has
promised to help us. He Who rules the movements of all
the suns and stars is yet concerned with the child crying in
his grief over a broken toy. The Heart of God has a
tenderness and pitifulness for all our griefs and sorrows,
infinitely beyond anything we can conceive or think.
We come to Him then with all our sorrows, but not
only so, with all our joys too ; He is a friend who will

8o SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
rejoice with us as well as sorrow with us. Too often we
forget it, and only tum to Him in our griefs. Let us
share both joy and sorrow alike with Him ; we shall not
regret it, for He is always a sympathetic listener. Earthly
friends may grow tired and weary, but He is ever the
same, attending to us as if we were the only soul in all
His great Universe. Who shall describe the inexpressible
consolation, the sweet comfort and the tranquil peace,
even in the midst of the most unutterable sorrow, this
wonderful intercourse brings into the soul who has once
begun to walk the way of interior prayer? The soul
knows never a circumstance or a happening in which she
may not turn with entire confidence and pour it all out into
the listening ears of her God and her Lover.
This may seem the language of exaggeration to those
who are strangers to the wonders of the Lord's gracious
dealing with His children ; but those who have indeed
tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious, they can only
say with the Queen of Sheba : ' ' The half was not told to
me." Then we want Attention when we have speech of our
King. What a contrast betwen attention and inattention.
We feel instinctively, when we are in conversation,
whether the one to whom we are speaking is really atten
tive or not. Some people answer in a way that clearly
shows that their minds are miles off, and that they are all
the while thinking of something entirely different from
that of which they are speaking.
When we are before Our Lord, let us be all attention,
with all earnestness speaking to Him out of the abundance
of our heart. Our whole being should go out to Him in
those wonderful moments when we have these intimate
conversations with Him ; we must be attentive to hear
what He has to say to us. He has much to say, if only
we will have the grace to be silent and listen.
Last of all our prayers must be Persevering. And Our
Lord has drawn a wonderful picture to impress this neces
sity upon our heart; A friend arrives in the night and his
host has nothing to set before him : so he goes to the
house of his neighbour and begins asking for bread to set
before his guest. His neighbour is comfortably in bed

SOME FIRST NOTIONS OF PRAYER 8r
and in no mood to be disturbed ; but the incessant knock
ing allows him no rest and so, although he will not arise
because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he
gives to him.
Our Saviour would have us persevere in prayer, so that,
even if God seems to deny what we ask, we should
persevere, sure that if it is for God's greater glory He
will not refuse the petition of His servant.
Not only does our Saviour impress upon us the necessity
of prayer, but He has given us a model on which all our
prayer shall be based — the "Our Father," famiUar to us
from earliest childhood, coming to us consecrated with a
thousand sacred memories. Our Father — not, as you
would think more natural. My Father — not ' ' my ' ' but
' ' our, ' ' because He would have us realise that we come
before one who is the Father of us all, the Father of every
soul that dwells under Heaven ; that our claim to be
heard is just that He is our Father, the Father not of a.
select few, but of the whole human race.
" Who art in Heaven." Why " in Heaven?" Because
Heaven is the place of His manifested glory, where
adoring Angels and Saints do Him unceasing service and
worship, and again because "Heaven is one day to be
our portion," and we shall be there with Angels and Saints
to praise Him through all the ages of Eternity.
True, He is without us and within us and all around us,
yet it is not to His presence thus that we more frequently
direct our prayer, but rather to His presence in the Royal
Court of Heaven, the dwelling-place of His Glory where
His Elect behold Him face to face.
"Hallowed be Thy Name." To hallow means to con
secrate, to sanctify, and so we pray that His Name may
be everywhere had in reverence and adoration, and that
all may come to adore Him in spirit and in truth.
" Thy Kingdom come." First of all in this poor heart
of mine. May His kingdom be established there and
may He reign as King, and may naught of earth ever
intrade to dispute His supreme and absolute dominion.
May all the things of earth and "aU the vain things that
charm me most" be cast forth, that my heart may be
wholly and altogether His and His alone.

82 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
Then, may His kingdom be established on this earth ;
may His Bride extend her sway in ever-widening influence,
amongst every tribe and kindred and tongue that dwells
under Heaven. May she triumph and her enemies be
cast down, and may she draw within herself an ever-
increasing multitude of souls and perfect them for their
destined place in Heaven. May His kingdom come in
final and triumphant power ; may the number of His Elect
be swiftly made complete, and the work of His Bride
finished, that His everlasting kingdom may come in all the
splendour of its majesty and power.
"Thy Will be done on earth." Yes, and how? — "as
it is in Heaven." As the Saints and Angels are doing it
this moment before the Great White Throne, doing it with
such absolute and utter perfection that the will of that
vast multitude is the will of One, and that One their Lord.
Heaven is Heaven because there God's Holy Will is per
fected in every one of His creatures. They are so uplifted
to that glorious participation in His Divinity that all their
actions are deified. Words are but a feeble and halting
medium to express the wonder of this unity of the Elect
with their God, a oneness that nothing shall sever. A
oneness by identity between them and His Divine Nature
In which they are participators.
The perfection of the creature on earth, the one true
happiness of the soul, is only found when she is, as far
as is possible in this land of exile, thus oned with God.
Would that souls might know this in very truth, and then,
if they did, they would possess peace even in the midst of
strife, a peace that no happening of time, however heart
breaking, however crushing, and however overwhelming,
could ever touch or for one instant distract.
" Give us this day our daily bread." This day, to-day's
bread, not to-morrow's. How many want God to antici
pate their needs. They have the needs of to-day, and
yet are filled with dread for the morrow. After all their
knowledge of His loving-kindness and the experience that
the promised bread and water does not fail, they are yet
fretful and fearful. Take no thought for the morrow, for
the morrow shall take thought for itself, and besides, there
may be no to-morrow.

SOME FIRST NOTIONS OF PRAYER 83
Anxiety about the future only makes us unfit to do our
duty in the present.
We ask first for the meat that perishes, for He knows
we must have clothing, food and drink and some sort of
shelter to cover us, and He will provide ; not a year in
advance, but each day as it dawns with its needs shall also
bring His supplies.
Then we want the supernatural bread of His Grace.
Without it we are helpless indeed. To-day's Grace for
to-day, not to-morrow's Grace to-day. How often a soul
wfll say : " Oh, I am all right to-day, but how shall I get
on to-morrow ? There is that trial and that temptation
which I am sure will come then."
Be not fearful : to-morrow's trials will also find you
with to-morrow's Grace to meet them ; besides, the thing
we fear rarely happens ; something else happens that we
never dreamed of, but not the thing we feared. The
Devil cares nothing how he disturbs and troubles us so
that he succeeds in doing so. So cast all your
care upon your Lord, Whose care for you is a miUion
times more than all the care you can possibly take for
yourselves. Then we pray for the life-giving Body and Blood of the
Lord, the Living Bread from Heaven, that each day He
may vouchsafe to come in His Divine and Human Nature
and make His home in the humble dwelling-place of our
heart. "And forgive us our trespasses." Yes we know we
need forgiveness badly, poor, wretched and wayward as
we are, who stumble and fall so often and so badly, despite
the amazing loving-kindness and extraordinary com
passion of His inexhaustible love. We are such a wretched
disappointment to Him as well as to ourselves that we do
realise how greatly we need His pitiful aU-pardoning for
giveness. Yes, but in what way? — "as we forgive those
that trespass against us." How do we forgive those that
trespass against us ? Is our forgiveness big, generous,
penetrated with the "Father, forgive them" of Calvary,
or is it grudging, so often expressed by the impatient,
" Oh, weU, I'U forgive, but I'U never forget? " Now, do we
want Him to forgive Hke that? We know we do not.

84 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
Well, then, let our forgiveness be as big, full and generous
as that which we ask of Him
In the passions roused by the great war, how quickly
even good people relapsed into paganism, and ministers.
of religion gave utterance to sentiments that could only
shame the Christian name. But we have not so learned
of Christ, Who, when the nails were driven through,
implored forgiveness for His murderers, not when they had
repented, but while they were in the very act of doing Him
to death.
One thing always struck me about the passion of hate-
during the war, that it was not the men facing death in
the battle line, but those safe at home who had never been
to war, who were the most unbridled in the curses they
called down on the foe. In the line when the morning
broke with an awful shelling, the men only said : ' ' Poor
old Fritz has got up with a sore head this morning ' ' ; and
when it was our turn and the enemy trenches were being
plastered with shells, he could say, "Sorry for poor old
Fritz, he's having a rough time to-day."
We have to forgive as we hope to be forgiven, and to
forgive every injury, however cruel it may sometimes be.
It is hard to nature to forgive, but easy to Grace. If
anyone has injured us very badly, let us pray for them very
fervently : we cannot hate those for whom we pray.
Remember he permits it all : they would not perform that
act under which I smart so bitterly unless He permitted it.
You say : ' ' But I never gave them any reason to act in
that way." No, but people are not much moved by reason —
good people least of all.
So, let us love — not merely our friends, but our enemies.
Love them, and bless them. "Well," you say, "that
takes a lot of doing" : so it does; and without the Holy
Ghost within us we cannot do it, but with Him within, all
things are possible.
"And lead us not into temptation." A strange prayer
at first sight, for you would not think God wanted to lead
anyone into temptation, and yet no single temptation of
world, flesh or devil can assail us without His permissive
will. The Devil can only tempt as far as God permits and
no farther. So this petition is not as strange as it seems.

SOME FIRST NOTIONS OF PRAYER 85
We pray that His Grace may be in us, and that in every
temptation His Providence permits we may have a vic
torious issue.
Man's life on earth is a warfare, as long as we breathe
here below we shall be in conflict. The world, the flesh
and the devil will rave against us, but strong though they
be, fierce though at times the onset of temptation, black
the night and savage the raging tempest, if we use the
Grace the Spirit gives, we shall never fail. A temptation
never befalls a man without a corresponding grace to
resist. "But deliver us from evil." There is only one evil in
this world and that is Sin. Sin is the sole and only real
evil. To turn away from God and try to satisfy our soul-
hunger with creatures, there is the real evil, an evil so
great because, unless repented of, it will carry us to Hell.
Pain and suffering, far from being evils, may carry us
to the height of sanctity. Many a soul would never have
turned to God at all had not some terrible pain or heart-
freezing grief opened their eyes to the utter vanity of all
things here below. Deliver us from the Evil — the one
awful, terrifying evil of eternal damnation, the final doom
of the impenitent sinner.
Let us flee sin as a serpent, beware of the smallest fault
and we shall escape the greatest. How often souls fall
little by little, through small trifling sins that seem to be
nothing and yet finally drag the soul down to perdition.
There is the sum and substance of all prayer, gathered
Tip in those wonderful petitions given by the Lord Him
self. They show us the lines on which we should go,
the way of approach to the Loving Heart of our God.
What a relief it is to talk over our anxieties and sorrows
with some loyal, faithful friend : how we come away
cheered and quickened with new courage. Who shall
measure the strength a friend can impart to one stricken
with grief and sorrow ? But if conversation with a friend,
cumbered by the slow process of human speech, brings
such rest and relief to the soul, what of the conversation
with God where spirit speaks with spirit and where in the
silence of our heart the Spirit Himself helps our infirmity,
" with groanings which cannot be uttered " ? Ah ! the sweet

86 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
relief that this communion with our God brings to the
soul when she is overshadowed with sorrow and crushed
by grief passes all telling. God takes the soul into His
compassionate embrace and in a moment lifts her up out of
sorrow and pain and pours in His own most marvellous
peace and sweet tranquUity. We may be and often are
disappointed when we turn to creatures, but never when we
turn to Him.

CHAPTER IX
DETACHMENT
Everyone desires peace, but only the few are ready to
pay the price. We can never possess true peace of the
heart unless we do pay the price that the Saviour demands.
The peace He came to give is so wonderful, so exceeding
human conception, that it is no marvel if the price is high :
" Peace I give to you ; My peace I leave to you. Not as
the world giveth, give I unto you."
To possess this peace we must give our all : we must be
detached from all things, all places, all persons, and finally
from ourselves. Attachment and detachment : how little
difference in the spelling, but how great a gulf between
the things they express. It is extraordinary, how we ever
tend downwards, how this poor soul of ours is ever ready
to lay hold on the things of time, although she knows so
well that there is nothing abiding under the sun, that
everything here below will surely fail us and that the only
question about it is — When ?
The way of peace is to empty our soul of every attach
ment to anything created, to empty ourselves of aU that is
not God. You can see quite well that this is the way,
and the only way of interior peace : How can the soul
ever enjoy peace if she is attached to anything that must
pass with time ? You know it, I know it, we all know
it through the hard school of experience, and it is only
when we have torn everything out of our heart and made
the full surrender of our all to our King that we begin to
taste the blessed peace which He came to bring us.
First of all we must detach ourselves from affection to
aU things, material things I mean. It is astonishing how
much we can be attached to them. You see people who
are so attached to their goods that you dare not so much
as move a thing in their room, or they are up in a
moment. If some trifle is lost or broken they are dis
consolate. Some are very artistic, and they must have
everything artistic around them ; that can become a very
87

S8 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
tyranny unless we set out with resolute determination to
break it. Others are attached to religious objects —
rosaries, medals, pictures — all good in themselves. But,
after all, what is the use of having half a dozen rosaries,
when we can only use one at a time ? We must become
totally detached from everything, be as willing to be with-
•out a thing as with it. It is not the mere not having,
¦but the not desiring things that we must practise.
What an astonishing thing it is sometimes to find a
jeligious who has sacrificed great possessions to enter
on the way of perfection still clinging to some unimportant
trifle, to which she would never have given a thought in
the world. It does not matter how small or unimportant
the thing is, as long as we cling to it. We are held : a
thread or a rope are equally fatal and prevent our obtain
ing the glorious liberty which God wills to be ours. If
there is a thing to which we find that we have an
attachment, let us get rid of it, make the full surrender,
the full renunciation, and hold nothing back.
I have often been struck with the strange ways in which
people are attached to things : with one it is an old prayer-
book, tattered and torn — ^but you must not take it away :
indeed, you hardly dare look at it. With another it is
old brass : it matters not what, so that it is old. But
there it is, the soul is held fast in it. And so one might
go on, one attachment after another. Little things, trifles.
Yes ; but just the very things that hold back the soul from
the completeness of the sacrifice.
Then there is the attachment to place. How strong it
is, and how easy to become attached. If we find it easy
to become attached to things, it is ten-fold easier to
become attached to places. It is not the intrinsic beauty
of the place : that has little or nothing to do with it.
I remember, long years ago, we had to close one of the
most miserable courts down Whitechapel, a place into
which the sun never penetrated, and yet, when we had to
get these poor people out, how unwilling they were to
go. Astonishing as it may seem, they were attached
to that place, so miserable that you would have thought
they would rather have rejoiced to leave it. No : they
were attached to it. No matter what the place may be,

DETACHMENT 89
if the soul is once attached, it is a fearful wrench to get
away. You know, in the Society of Jesus they attach great
importance to this question of detachment. So the young
novice goes out for his weekly walk, and when he comes
home finds his cell changed, generally for the worse :
the last one had a fine view from the window, this has
none. Even in religion you can get attached to a place.
Perhaps you only discover it when the order comes to
leave ; ' ' You will leave for such a place to-morrow
morning." This is the test : to be ready, without a ripple
-disturbing the surface of our soul, to leave the place in
which we have spent years and go to a place we have
never seen.
We are strangers and pilgrims here below and we must
never forget it. This is not the place of our rest. Heaven
— that, and that alone — is our home, and everything here
below we are to look at as something passing on which
we must never set our heart. We are en route for
Heaven, and when you are en route you are only con
cerned with getting to your destination as quickly as
possible.* It is hard work to get detached from places and things,
but hardest of all to become detached from persons. How
even insensibly, without ever in the least knowing it, this
attachment to persons creeps in. It is so natural,
especially if we are of a warm and affectionate nature.
Some people I know are like ice : but with most of us it is
not so. Love, natural love, is strong within us.
The circle of a family where love is ardent is bound
together by that strong tie. I remember a poor little
girl, whose brother was at the front, said to me : "God
must not take him. He can't have him. If he goes I
'*Cf. "Une Petite Soeur " (Maurice Landrieux, Vlcaire G^nSral de
Reims), 56 edition, chap. II., p. 29 (Espouse).
"II y a deux f aeons de voyager : voyage d'affaires et voyag^e
d'agr^ment. Quand on voyage en touriste, il importe que la route soit
interessante, & un titre quelconque. Mais, quand on ya pour arriver,
T^tat des ohemins devient secondaire. Tout mieux s'ils sont bons et
agr^ables : L'essentiel, c'est qu'ils mfenent au but, que de gens marchent
ainsi iiniquement pr^occup^s d 'arriver, indifferents aux details de la
Toute. ' '

go SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
shall die." To leave the home circle and all dear and
precious to us is just like death, for it is the strongly
affectionate nature that God calls. But the love of the
Lord overcomes, and with a tremendous struggle they
wrench themselves free that they may give their all to-
God. But entering religious life, how often we find we have
to die again. What ? Is not once enough ? Why that
leaving of home ? — unless it was for God alone, we never
could have done it !
And yet again human affection springs up, and the very
thing we had left, as we thought for ever, finds a place in
our hearts once more. A religious said to me,
when separation came from another to whom he had
become attached : "I thought I was detached, and now I
find I am hot." He wandered about restless and unsatis
fied, with a void in his heart. Why ? Because a human
attachment had entered in. Little Sister Teresa was
always grateful for the fact that she had so severe a
noviciate, for with her ardent, affectionate nature, how
easily she might have left the world only to find again in
the Cloister the very thing she had renounced. Those.
warm, affectionate natures that can give God so great a
glory are the very ones that are tempted most in this way.
So they can never be too careful or watchful, for attach
ments grow insensibly, and it is only when we find a blank
restlessness in the absence of the one to whom we have
become attached that we realise how far we have gone.
Let us see we are not caught and entangled. We must
" stand fast in the freedom wherewith Christ has made us
free." There was a dear child who understood this well, and
said to me one day : "There ! I have given up all. I have
utterly rooted out of my heart love of father, mother,.
brother and sisters, and henceforth I only love them in
God." We must be detached from all persons, and last of all
from ourselves.
How hard a task that is, to be really and in truth
detached from our own selves. The farther we go, and
the more the light of God's Truth shines within us, the

DETACHMENT gr
more we realise in how many mean, contemptible Uttle
ways we are attached to ourselves. It is so very easy
and so very natural to be attached, and yet we must make
this final detachment if we are to possess the peace of God.
That means detachment even from all sensible spiritual
consolations, since they, too, are not God and He alone is
the only One to Whom we may safely be attached. That,
is our work : to detach ourselves entirely from all that is
not God, to seek Him alone, not to seek His consolations
and sweetnesses, but His Own Divine Self, that, passing
through all that is not Himself, we may become one spirit
with Him.
It is strange how some expect God to be always giving
them sensible sweetness and sensible consolation. They
are seeking not Him but themselves, and their own satis
faction, the pleasure that comes from these visitations.
We must mount above all these and seek only our con
formation to the express image of the Divine Likeness.
Then we shall have His true peace which passes all under
standing, because our soul, passing all consolations of
sense and spirit, will have to come to the possession, as far
as possible in this, life, of God, of His very Self :
" O Jesus, from all things of earth
May I be rent apart.
So shall I make my dwelling there
Deep in Thy Sacred Heart."

CHAPTER X
MORTIFICATION OF FLESH AND SPIRIT
The soul can only be united to her Lord when, by means
-of detachment, she has emptied herself of creatures and
¦all affection to creatures. She can only attain to this
detachment through the continual practice of mortification,
both of flesh and spirit.
As the soul lives her life in the body, this body must be
mortified and brought into subjection to the spirit, and
the spirit again into subjection to God. To expect to
attain to perfect mortification of the spirit without morti
fication of the flesh is like expecting a child to run before
he has yet learned to walk.
Corporal penance is necessary, and is preliminary to
the far more difficult task of spirit-penance. Those who
try to persuade the soul aspiring after perfection that cor
poral penance is not necessary lead her sadly astray.
"The body of this death," as the Apostle so aptly calls
it, is all too ready to revolt against the spirit, "for the
flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the
flesh," and until it is so subdued by penance and morti-
tication that it instinctively obeys the command of the
soul, there can be no subjugation of the whole man
to the Spirit of Christ.
All the Saints of past ages have practised corporal
mortification. If they, who attained such heights of
sanctity, were unable to come there without : " mortifying
through the spirit the lusts of the flesh," it is surely rather
presumptuous of us to suppose we can dispense with it.
We are warned against the dangers of excessive corporal
penance, as though Belgravia was scourging itself to blood
and the rest of the country penancing itself on bread and
water ; and besides, we are reminded that our bodies are
so weak and feeble, compared to those who have gone
before, that they cannot possibly support the austere pen
ances and terrible mortifications of former days.
The war has answered all that. The youth and middle
age of the country crossed the seas and on the battle front
of France and Flanders endured, without faltering,
92

MORTIFICATION OF FLESH AND SPIRIT 93;
penance, equalling if not exceeding the most terrifying
mortifications of any age.
Long hours in trenches filled with icy water ; clothes
sodden to the skin and unchanged for weeks ; a few hours'
sleep rolled up in a blanket in the mud of a dug-out,
huddled together, a steaming mass of humanity ; a few
hard biscuits for food ; days and nights without sleep ;;
fighting, marching with the heavy load of pack, rifle,
gas masks and ammunition — human nature endured all
that in this twentieth century, not for a few weeks, for five
long years, and endured it with marvellous and uncom
plaining patience. And the girls who crossed the seas
were nothing behind the boys in splendid endurance,
intrepid sacrifice and unfailing cheerfulness under it all.
Never again can it be said that our bodies cannot bear the
penances, or practise the mortifications our forefathers
bore. Let the truth be told. We are unwilling to bear the
mortifications of olden days, or of any days for that matter.
It is the will that is wanting. If we think of all the incon
ceivable/ suffering endured for a temporal kingdom, how
wretchedly mean our own unwillingness for mortification
appears, when we remember that with us it is for an ever
lasting kingdom: "They strive for a temporal crown,
but we for an eternal."
We have not the will to penance, and so we stand still
and make no progress in the spiritual life. While some,
with one breath declare against corporal penance, with
the other they affirm that spiritual penance is all that is
needed to-day, ignoring the experience of all the ages
and of all the saints, who proclaim with one voice the need
of bodily penance, if we would attain spiritual mortification
or indeed if we would save our souls at all : "I beat down
my body and bring it into subjection, lest after having^
preached to others, I myself should become a castaway."
Be sure of this ; unless this body of ours is crushed and
beaten down into subjection to the spirit, it will drag the
spirit down with it into perdition.
The soul draws in its knowledge of things without by
means of her five senses, five windows, as Walter Hylton
caUs them in the " Scale of Perfection." "These are the
five senses by which thy soul goeth out of herself, and

'94 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
fetcheth her delight and seeketh her feeding in earthly
things, contrary to the nobility of her own nature. As
by the eye to see curious and fair things, and so of the
other senses."*
These five senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and
smell convey all their perceptions to the common sense of
the soul, which receives and unifies them all.
Sight is the most wonderful of these senses, by which
the soul looks upon all the things external to herself. How
necessary is penance here, for how easily the eyes are the
windows through which death enters. See how it entered
through the eyes of our first parents, when they beheld
the tree delightful to look upon. See how David was
pierced by a single glance and fell into the most grievous
sin of his life.
The mortification of the eyes means the exercise of con
tinual restraint, so that they always obey the will, look
-only when the soul wills they should look, observe only
when she bids them observe.
Two persons go out into the streets ; one returns carry
ing with him the images of a hundred things he has seen,
the other returns bringing nothing. Why? Because in
the one case the eyes were under control and in the other
they were not. To gain this control we must not merely
turn away the eyes from unlawful things, but often turn
them away, when we might lawfully look, in order to
obtain that complete mastery over them which is necessary
if the soul within is to be at peace.
You can tell the unmortified soul at once ; the eyes
looking everywhere at everything, the quick turn of the
head to see whence and where.
The advice given to the Altar-servers of a certain church
is to the point : "If the roof of the church falls in behind
you, you must not turn your head to look." That the
lesson had been to a good purpose was proved, when one
Sunday during High Mass an unfortunate lunatic entered
the church, going through the most extraordinary contor
tions before he was removed. The boys went on with the
ceremonial as if nothing unwonted was happening.
¦* The Scale of Perfection, by Walter Hylton (ed. Dalgaims, 1908),
Bools: I., Part III., cap. IX., p. 115.

MORTIFICATION OF FLESH AND SPIRIT 95
Very intimately connected with the sense of Sight is
that of Hearing, a faculty indeed scarcely second to it in
importance. As the eye beholds all that comes under its
observation, so the ear apprehends all the sounds conveyed
to it from without.
The ear is extraordinarily sensitive to the least sound
that reaches it, whether it be the ceaseless beating of the
waves on the shore, the roll of thunder, the sweet song
of birds or the sweeter song of the human voice ; the
shattering crash of a bursting shell, the soft sighing of the
wind in the branches on a summer's day, or the rage of
the tempest on a stormy night. And each sound produces
its differing emotions in the soul.
But there are other sounds than these that fall upon the
ear ; the blasphemies against God and His Christ, the
voice that calls the soul to sin, almost compelling in its
importunate instancy.
We must be unsparing in mortifying the sense of hear
ing, striving so to control it, that we hear alone what the
soul wills and are deaf to what she wills not.
How often one who is musical cannot restrain the mani
festation of feeling at some badly executed piece, unless
by continual penance the faculty has been so brought under
control that, however distressing the sounds that assail
the ear, no external sign of annoyance is suffered to
appear. We must remember the old proverb : ' ' Believe
nothing you hear, and only half you see ! ' ' and we shall
save a world of trouble. How much needless suffering we
should avoid, if we held silence about the things we hear,
as well as those we see. We must be very often deaf,
as well as blind, if we would keep our soul unsullied by
sin. What a thrill can pass through the soul from a single
iouch, for good or evil. The pressure of a hand, without
a word, from a friend, in the midst of great sorrow ; what
strength it can convey. And one touch can set a soul on
fire of Hell. All the long silent furies of lust can be
quickened into Hfe in a moment by it, so potent a power
does touch exercise, and so swiftly is its perception con-
-veyed to the soul.
Taste is a fastidious sense and a tyrannical master, never

96 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
more so than now, for ours is a fanciful, delicate age,
self-indulgent beyond all that has gone before it. We
see it even in children : "I don't like this, I don't fancy-
that ! ' ' And the dear child must have his whim satisfied,
no matter how unaccountable it be. How different to the
old days when it was : "Very well, wait till you come to."
And the table was cleared, and nothing had until the next
meal, by which time the child had indeed "come to" and
was ready to eat anything.
Fasting is the best cure for fancifulness. If there is a
dish we like, we should pass it and help ourselves to that
we like less. Practise one act of mortification at every
meal, and thus the unruly appetite will be brought into-
subjection. Threequarters of the people who wander from Spa to
Spa for their cure would be perfectly all right if they kept
the Lenten fast. People die from eating too much, not
too little, in our days. In how many cases, when the
doctor is called in, what has he to do but prescribe fasting,
under a more fashionable name.
The trenches proved a splendid cure, better than any
Spa, or the most scientific treatment. The bread managed
to accumulate a fair amount of mud on the way up, and the
meat was just a trifle gritty : it had only been tumbled over-
in the mud by the wayside. The tea got mixed with the:
sugar ; the cheese and the jam had a habit of amalgamating.
Still the keen air produced keen appetites, not much
troubled by such trifles . "I never said my grace so fervently
in all my life as I did over my bit of hard biscuit!"
remarked one of our boys in the Ypres sector.
The sense of Smell is more strongly developed in some-
than in others, but it is possessed by all in a greater or
less degree.
Some are so fanciful that everything they use and have-
around them must be scented to satisfy their fastidious
sense ; and the least encounter with anything unpleasant
will produce an expression of face that is a correct index
of what they feel. A mortified soul will give no sign,
either of pleasure or displeasure, no matter how strongly
she may be affected.
The front gave plenty of opportunity to mortify this

MORTIFICATION OF FLESH AND SPIRIT 97
sense ; as you went up the line in the dark your sense
of smell soon informed you that you were in the forward area.
We can see a little now the way along which we must
practise penance, to reduce our body to its right position
and prevent it being a drag on the soul.
But there is the further and the more difficult work of
spiritual mortification.
The Common Sense must be so mortified that it rules
the other senses and accepts or refuses their impressions
as the soul determines.
The Imagination is a more powerful faculty than the
Common Sense ; for while the latter can only receive the
impressions actually received from without by the per
ceiving senses, the imagination can fashion all sorts of
images of places and persons, independently of what it
receives through the Common Sense.
Picture succeeds picture, as the imagination with
amazing skill and rapid stroke sets them before the mind.
There is no faculty where mortification has so much scope
as here : for unless restrained, the imagination will
dominate the soul.
The Intellect is the highest faculty of all, where thought
presents its various concepts ; discerns, discusses, judges,
accepts or rejects them.
God takes account of our every thought, as well as of
our every deed. All our thoughts, good and bad, shall
have their reward ; each thought is an act, even although
it has no external manifestation.
Man looks upon the outward appearance, but God upon
the heart. Our thoughts are soul-acts as distinct from
material-acts, so that a sin deliberately consented to and
consummated in thought is just as much a sin as one com
mitted in outward act.
Where our thoughts are, there also are we. What we
think, that we become, and good thoughts within produce
good works without.
We have to keep ceaseless vigil over the direction and
tendency of our thoughts, arresting them instantly we
perceive they tend in the direction of evil ; and sometimes
even our good thoughts must be restrained, because the
soul must control her thought and not be controlled by it.
H

98 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
We can tell the state of our soul by the habitual direc
tion of our thoughts.
The Memory also plays a great part in our interior life.
It recalls the past with such surprising vividness and sets
it before us with such force and intensity, that the past
appears as if present.
No impression is ever really lost ; it may be dormant
for long years, and then, in a moment, the memory may
draw it forth and set it before us again.
The soul's passions of love and hate, joy and sorrow,
hope and fear, desire, aversion and anger, are always in
action, and the soul can only be at rest when they have
been completely mortified by the indwelling power of
the Holy Ghost.
Love is the strongest and noblest of these passions, and
likens us most to God, since God is Love. Love is most
to be desired and most to be feared ; most to be desired
when its object is God, most to be feared when it is set
on creatures. It can be the soul's greatest good and also
her greatest ill ; everything depends on the object to which
it is attracted.
The soul that has once tasted the blessedness of super
natural love, and begun to experience the interior sweet
ness of the Divine Presence, abandons everything for the
object of her love ; suffering, pain and sacrifice become
deUghtful to her, as they are the manifestation on her
part of the love she bears her Love. She loves Him for
Himself alone and all other she loves for His sake.
But when the soul turns the love that of right belongs
wholly to God and pours it out upon creatures, then her
greatest good becomes her greatest ill. Once two souls
have been caught in the passion of natural love, nothing
can divide them : they will rather go to Hell together than
to Heaven separately.
Hatred and Love are never far apart. We must hate
nothing save sin, and while we must always hate the sin we
must always love the sinner. It is so easy to confound sin
and the sinner and so difficult to separate them.
We have to keep ceaseless watch over the rising of
hatred in our hearts. Sometimes it originates out of a
mere trifle ; beginning with a feeling of disUke, it grows

MORTIFICATION OF FLESH AND SPIRIT 99
until the very sight of a person inflames the passion of
hate to a white heat.
Once this hatred has taken possession, everything the
particular person does will appear wrong, however excel
lent it may reaUy be. Hatred beholds everything under
one colour and the object of its enmity can do no good.
What extraordinarily good haters pious people are,
especially towards each other ! If two devout people fall
out ; well, it wiU be a miracle if they ever make it up
this side the grave. Worldly people have their quarrels,
make them up and forget them ; good people, never. I
have often marvelled at this strange fact, and do so still.
But there it is. Let us watch the beginnings, for an after
remedy comes too late. No matter what the injury
inflicted on us, no matter how unjust the treatment,
let us pray for the one who inflicted the injury, and
praying for him, we shall still any rising of hatred; you
cannot hate anyone for whom you pray.
Joy rejoices in possession. We are full of joy when we
welcome home one dearly loved after long years of
separation. Joy fills our heart, because he is with us
again ; yet every joy here below is dashed with the fear of
loss. Only in Heaven can our joy be truly full. Our
true joy consists in the possession of God, and this joy
fills the soul with gladness exceeding all expression, even
here on earth.
Joy springs from possession, Sorrow arises from loss,
from the absence of the one whom we love. The separa
tion from those loved always brings a sorrow proportionate
to our love. There is sorrow, too, at our imperfections,
at our ungenerous nature, our self-lovCj and want of fer
vour for Our Lord Who lavished such love upon us. This
is a fruitful sorrow, if it leads us to action ; unless the
sorrow brings forth fruit, it is useless. Joy and sorrow,
tears and laughter are near neighbours. Extreme joy
and extreme sorrow both produce tears ; how often we see
the smile, even through the tears. Life, of necessity,
must be shadowed with sorrow, because made up of
separations. Seas and lands sever those who love, death
divides those who love, and there is sorrow, because they
are no longer with us and we with them. Some are so

100 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
stricken and crushed with sorrow that they can never look
up : the light has gone out of their eyes and they give
themselves over to inordinate grief. We must not sorrow
beyond measure, even over our past sins and failures. He
has forgiven and forgotten, and we, forgetting those things
that are behind, must press on to those that are before.
How great a thing is Hope, which cheers and
encourages, inspires and helps, amidst the darkest hours
and most unutterable disappointments of Ufe ; " hoping," as
the Apostle says, " against hope." How wonderful the con
fident hope in the final issue shone out in France ; even in
the gloomiest days men were sure we should "win
through." After all the horror of the great retreat in
March, 1918, a man remarked to me : "Well, Father, it's
been a bit of a mix-up , ain ' t it ? " That was all . In the dark
hour of fierce savage struggle and battle with the powers
of darkness, when the blackness of night envelopes the
soul, she must never fail or falter in her hope and con
fidence that her Lord will "see her through," sure that,
as He is for her, none can stand against her. If Hope
lifts up the soul and supports her in her most impossible
situations. Despair casts down and paralyses aU her
faculties. Once despair enters, then the soul is rendered
helpless indeed. An army given up to despair, is already
beaten before the fight begins. Some souls have a cease
less battle all the days of their life against this insidious
passion. The Devil uses it with such effect, he paints
all their failures in such intense shadows and causes even
their good to appear iU, striving to persuade them that
they will surely fail at the last.
Desire is a restless faculty of the soul : no sooner has
one desire been satisfied than another takes its place,
in endless succession through all the days of life. Desire
is always directed to the attainment of something beyond
us. Once it is attained, desire reaches forward to some
thing else. This is true both in the natural and super
natural order.
Aversion arises from the wish to avoid the threatening
evil and to escape it, just as Desire is the wish to attain
the good and possess it.
The way to the mortification of this passion is to go

MORTIFICATION OF FLESH AND SPIRIT loi
forward and embrace the thing that is feared, whether it
be temporal or spiritual suffering. Once we determine
resolutely to endure the pain or cross that threatens, half
its terrors disappear.
Lastly there comes Anger, arising from some opposition
to that which the will desires. The miserable state to
which this passion can reduce the soul we see only too
often in the case of those who, immediately they are
crossed in the slightest thing, break out into ungovernable
passion, regardless of every sense of propriety, of the
company they are in, or the place in which they happen
to be. In extreme cases the persons so affected become tem
porarily insane and utterly irresponsible, only returning
to sanity when the passion has spent its force.
We have to mOrtify this passion, first by exterior restraint,
so that we do not permit any outward sign of the emotion
within. This is the first step. Then we have
to mortify the passion within, until finally, no matter
what the provocation may be, there is no disturbance
within or without. Make no mistake : if after a terrific
struggle we crush down the rising passion within and
suffer no indication to appear without, we have already
done much. We must not listen to those who say: "I
am no hypocrite. I don't pretend to be what I am not,"
as an excuse for the uncontrolled manifestation of their
anger. No : there is no hypocrisy. When with great
difficulty we have held ourselves in during a trying
situation, it is a triumph over the flesh and wiU lead us
to the final victory over the spirit.
Now we have some idea of the way in which flesh and
spirit have to be controlled and disciplined by this prac
tice of mortification. "I die daily," says the Apostle:
and so our life must be a daily dying to ourselves, if we
would live to God. This unceasing mortification of every
sense, power and passion of the soul wfll bring peace,
liberty of spirit and perfect union at last, although the
soul has yet to pass through the night of purgation of
sense and spirit before that union is attained, a night in
which she dies a mystical death and begins her true
mystical life.

CHAPTER XI
THE NIGHT OF SENSITIVE PURGATION,
ACTIVE AND PASSIVE
Before we describe the experience of the soul, in the
night of sensitive purgation, we must look a little at the
state at which she has arrived before entering it.
She has already turned herself to God and forsaken the
pleasures of the world, with all its varied delights ; she
has found in prayer a sweetness and joy of which she
had no experience while she was absorbed in the things
of sense ; she rejoices in fasting and corporal mortifica
tions and the solemn offices of the Church. The life-
giving Grace flowing to her from the Sacraments quickens
her with the pulsation of the new life of the spiritual
world into which she has entered. How different her
state now is to that before her conversion is brought home
to her, when some object that formerly excited her to
delight and pleasure no longer stirs her even to passing
interest. She is a new creature and that life lived accord
ing to the flesh has passed away, and it may be in truth
said of her that all things have become new.
This sensible sweetness which she finds will always
make the first days of her conversion a peculiarly precious
memory. It is only the dawning of the spirit-life : but
the dawn has a beauty all its own, as the sun appears
over the hills and disperses the clouds and darkness of
night. And it is so with the soul, when God, in His
gracious loving-kindness, bestows on her, but newly-
weaned from the delights of the world and the flesh, a
special sensible devotion, so that the things she has
forsaken are felt to be of no worth, compared with this
experimental tasting of the goods of the supernatural
Hfe. But the soul in this state is yet very far from perfection
and full of defects of which she is not yet conscious ; the

NIGHT OF SENSITIVE PURGATION 103
clear light of God's Grace has not yet shone in with morn
ing splendour and manifested their presence to her.
Nevertheless, between her former state, when she had
her gaze fixed upon created things and found all her
pleasure and satisfaction in them, and her present con
dition, there is a great gulf fixed. Now she has her gaze
turned to God and finds her pleasure and her satisfaction
in Him, she speaks a new language to that she spoke
before; "the natural and sensual man understandeth not
the things of God, they are foolishness to him, and he
cannot understand, because they are spiritually dis
cerned." Now she has begun this new life, she speaks the new
language of her spiritual state.
The defects that are inevitable in beginners manifest
thertiselves in the soul in this first stage of her dawning
spirit-life. She is too much set on the sweetness of
sensible devotion, too attached to the tangible spiritual
emotion, critical of others and over hasty and impetuous
when she sees them as yet unawakened to the value of the
things of the spirit, forgetful that such was her own
condition only a brief while before.'
This want of humility — for such it is — tends to a certain
narrowness of view, So that the soul is impatient of all
who do not follow, her exactly in her way. She is too
ready to discuss her state and experience with others and
place over-much importance on mere outward practices
of devotion.
Alternately she makes too little of her faults or too much,
and gives way to impatience, when she sees how easily she
falls into them.^
The soul has to watch vigilantly at this time against
over-great eagerness for sensible devotion, and undue
attachment to the mere outside of the spiritual Hfe. She
must strive to withdraw herself from any resting in out
ward shewing of devotion, directing herself to God alone.
St. John of the Cross is very explicit in his warning of
the dangers that arise from spiritual luxury : "Some, too,
form spiritual friendships with others, the source of which is
> Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. I., cap. tt,, § i.
» ib., Bk. I., cap. ii,, 8 5.

104 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
luxury, and not spirituality. We may know it
to be so by observing whether the remembrance
of that affection increases our recollection and love
of God, or brings remorse of conscience. When
this affection is purely spiritual, the love of God
grows with it, and the more we think of it the
more we think of God and the greater our longing for
Him ; for the one grows with the other. The Spirit of
God has this property, that it increases good by good,
because there is a likeness and conformity between them.
But when this affection springs out of the vice of
sensuality, its effects are quite opposite ; for the more it
grows, the more is the love of God diminished, and the
remembrance of Him also : for if this earthly love grows,
that of God cools down. . . On the other hand, if the
love of God grows in the soul, the human love cools and
is forgotten." '
The soul in this state is often awkward and
angular in her movements ; angry and censorious
of the faults of others and impatiently eager to set
them right, then angry with herself, as she sees her own
shortcomings and failings, and again, in moments when
the spiritual sweetness to whch she has become accus
tomed is wanting, there is a sharpness and irritation of
manner, that seem strangely at variance with her state.
This is all to be expected ; the soul cannot escape these
defects in a moment, but only through long-continued
penance and self-effacement."
Another danger arises from the soul over-estimating the
importance of the spiritual sweetness of devotion, and too
eagerly seeking it, desiring rather the consolations of God
than the God of consolations.
This clinging to sensible sweetness is so strong, that
the soul imagines that unless she enjoys it, her prayer
can be of no value at all : she has yet to learn that true
devotion consists only in the total conformity of her wiU
to her Lord, so that she embraces with joy, sweetness or
dryness, whichever He sends, because it is His gift and
will for her.
* Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. I., cap. iv., § 9.
' ib., Bk. I., cap. v.

NIGHT OF SENSITIVE PURGATION 105
She is inclined to attempt indiscreet penances and
mortifications, without the consent of her director, or at
least obtain his assent by her importunate entreaty. She
has not yet learned the supreme importance of absolute
surrender, that penance of her own will which is so
essential for her progress.*
Again, she is envious and questioning when she sees the
graces God has granted to others, inclined to depreciate
them, especially of they are led in a different way to her
own." When God begins to withdraw this morning sweetness
from the soul, she is met with one great peril, the tempta
tion to slacken in her devotion ; not finding the consolation
she has hitherto enjoyed, she is inclined to grow weary
and abandon the attempt to tread the interior way alto
gether. She is very far from that total abandonment to the
Divine Will which is her essential perfection ; too often
she desires to draw God to her will, rather than conform
hers to His. She conceives some design which she
believes is for His glory, and in effect says to Him :
' ' You must do this, you see it is for your glory, ' ' without
that ready and entire abandonment of her project to His
good pleasure which is so essential to her. She is ever
expecting God to will the thing she desires.
Such is the state of the soul, when she stands on the
threshold of that dark night of purgation in which all her
senses are to be purified and harmonised with the spirit.
This night is one in which all the senses are withdrawn
from the beholding of outward things, for, says St. John
of the Cross : " If the impressions and communications of
sense be rejected and denied, we may well say that the
soul is in darkness and empty. . It is true, indeed,
that we cannot help hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting,
and touching, but this is of no moment, and does not
trouble the soul, when the objects of sense are repelled,
any more than if we neither heard nor saw." ' It does
not mean that the soul, in this state, stays the natural
action of the senses, but that she withdraws within herself,
' The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. I., cap. vi,
' ib., Bk. I., cap. vii.
' Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. 1., cap. iii., § 3.

io6 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
heeds them not, like one immersed in a book hears the
sounds of the voice, but apprehends not their meaning
when they strike the ear.
The beginning then, of this night, is the abandonment
of all sensual desire in outward things, the pleasures of
the flesh and the satisfaction of the will.
This closing, so to speak, of the five windows of
the soul by which she beholds things without, naturally
puts \her in darkness, since she no longer derives any
satisfaction through them. It is not that, in the external
duties of her state and in their fulfilment, these five senses
are not employed, that would be impossible ; but the soul
no longer uses these windows to look out and seek her
pleasure through them. When an observer was sent up
the line to watch the enemy, he would be instructed to
look for any sign of movement along some particular road,
otherwise the enemy's movements would not attract atten
tion, although they might be seen with the eyes.
During the night the soul sees things, but she pays no
attention. She must go further still, and arrest all the desires of
the soul within, for it would be of small use to shut the
windows if she is filled with desires inside. The desires
are ever painting pictures in the imagination, and as the
desires are ever changing and never satisfied, this night
of purgation has to bring the soul to that state in which
all her desires have been laid to rest.
And it is this stilling of all desire that makes the night
so dark ; having closed the outer windows, the soul has
now to empty herself within from every desire and image
of created things, that she may attend to her Love alone.
The soul not only detaches herself from all created
things, but from all desire of them ; it Is not a question of
their mere absence ; if she still desired them, the soul
would be still attached to them. A soul may possess
things and yet be entirely detached from them, while
another is deeply attached to them without possessing
them, through her desire to have them.
This emptying of the soul is necessary, in order that
her Lord and Bridegroom may come and fill her with His
own glorious presence.

NIGHT OF SENSITIVE PURGATION 107
Now the soul can only leave her love of creatures when
this is replaced by the greater love of the Creator. Divine
Love alone can enable the soul to forsake earthly love and
affections, for the love of the less can only be overcome
by the love of the greater.
How strong is the attraction of the soul to creatures, even
in the fervour of her first conversion, when she is being
drawn away from them by God's love acting upon her
with all its supernatural power : and unless it was so, the
soul could never get free from the attracting power of
outward things.
Creatures compared with God are as nothing ; if the
soul desires creatures at the same time that she desires
God, she seeks the impossible. It is impossible for God
and creatures to occupy her heart at the same time : "I
am He that is, thou art she that is not," said God to St.
Catherine of Siena, when He showed her the nothingness
of the creature compared with Himself.
Our heart is so constituted that it magnifies the object
on which it is set, above others, that are really greater.
So when the creature fills the heart the vision of the Creator
is dimmed.
The mortification of the desires of the soul is of supreme
importance, if she is to enter this night of purgation, and
proceed through it to that union and transformation into
God for which she has been made.
These desires of the soul have a two-fold effect, as St.
John of the Cross says : " they both deprive her of God,
and then they weary, torment, overcloud, defile and weaken
her."' The desires are restless and never satisfied : no sooner
have they obtained one thing, than they ask for another.
The soul is never at rest, the desires ever reach forward
to grasp that to which they tend, and when they have
obtained it, stretch out again after something else.
We see how the soul is tormented by these never-
ceasing desires; for when they are very intense and
vehement they produce pain and anguish within her.
They overcloud and darken her ; the heart turned to the
creature is really blinded, in an altogether extraordinary
• Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. I., cap. vi., § i.

io8 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
way, to the loss she suffers. And these desires defile the
soul ; the intellect is filled with conceptions of the things
of time, and the imagination is filled with pictures and
disfigured and stained by them.
The will requires all its strength for the attainment
of an end. Dissipation means weakness. Therefore in so
far as the soul turns to creature, she is hampered in her
real work of giving all to God.
Desires are manifold : they vary from those grievously
sinful to those only venial, and again, to those that are
merely imperfections ; all in their various degrees hold
back the soul from God. Even spiritual and good desires
have often to be suppressed, because they distract the soul
and hinder her in her advance towards Divine Union.
Of course it is always understood that by desires we mean
those that are voluntarily consented to by the soul. It
is not within our power to restrain the first involuntary
movement of desire ; it is when the soul freely consents
to these desires, with the will of satisfying them, that
sins or imperfection come in. The involuntary desires
or imaginations no more affect the soul than outward
things through the five senses, when she pays no heed to
them. It is the voluntary attention of the soul to them that
must be arrested, as Walter Hylton says : " If thou feedest
thy soul willingly and wittingly by imaginations of vanities
of the world, and desiring of worldly things ; as a comfort,
or pleasure, or ease ; verily though thy soul be kept within
as to thy bodily senses, it is notwithstanding far without
by such vain imaginations." '
The way of the soul is to root out entirely all desires save
one, ' ' That God's Holy Will may be utterly and entirely done
in her ' ' ; with all desires banished, she must wait in the
attitude of loving attention on her Lord. One desire
cherished, however small, is sufficient to hinder the soul
from union with God, because this union consists in the
transformation of her will into His, in such wise that
every movement of hers becomes that of His, From
which it is evident that for the soul to cleave to anything,
however small, to desire anything, however trifling, save
¦ The Scale of Perfection, Bk. I., pt. iii., cap. lo.

NIGHT OF SENSITIVE PURGATION 109
Him alone, is to place a barrier to His designs within
her. She must be entirely detached from even the smallest
inclination to creatures, if she is to possess the divine
freedom. The soul that keeps back part of the price, even though
that part be only one insignificant trifle, a certain natural
affection, a liking for a particular book or room, or the
satisfaction of one's taste in things in themselves good,
can never attain unity till she gives the whole.
All this is impossible for the soul, since of herself she
can do nothing ; but with the Holy Ghost within her she
can do all things, even that most difficult task of all, the
stilling of all her desires, the bringing of every thought
into captivity to the Cross of Christ.
When the soul enters on this night, the sensible sweet
ness she has hitherto enjoyed in prayer and the unction
she has experienced in her spirit-life is all dried up ;
there is no consolation now, but a desolate aridity; do
what she may, the soul cannot find anything save this
sense of utter desolation, in which she finds no comfort
in the things of God, and none in created things.
In this darkness and dryness of spirit she never feels
any inclination to turn from spiritual things and seek con
solation in temporal : indeed she is quite unable to do so.
With this strange incapacity to find satisfaction in the
things of earth or heaven, she is overwhelmed with dread
that she is not pleasing to God, although she can perceive
no new fault and no new reason for her condition. Her
desire of God is stronger and more ardent than it was in
the moments of her former sensible devotion, and her fear
of having offended Him is greater.
Then again, she finds herself unable to meditate, that
is to make discursive prayer : she cannot make use of
memory, nor make any collected reflections. God is
beginning now to communicate Himself in a new way, that
of the pure spirit through mystical Contemplation, which
is not a devout reasoning about Him, but a loving behold
ing of Him, a looking at Him with the eyes of the spirit.
This dark night of Purgation produces in the soul a
true self-knowledge : for by the withdrawal of all sensible

IIO SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
sweetness in the closing of her outward windows and in
the emptying of her will of all desire, she comes for the
first time to a full realization of her own misery.
She is no longer critical and fault-finding with others,
she perceives too well her utter worthlessness to set her
self above anyone, rather she esteems herself as less than
the least of all.
She becomes less attached to the outward things of the
spiritual life, and depends little, if at all, upon them for
help. She is far less self-confident in her prayer : she
does not press and insist on that which she conceives to
be for God's glory, but willingly abandons herself to His
good pleasure, reducing everything to this, that she only
desires that which appears to be for His glory, if it is in
truth what it seems.
Her prayer is less vehement and more humble : she
sees her own defects and angularities with a clearness un
known before, and her unworthiness of the least of His
mercies ; in the grace of this humility she loves and
esteems others, despises herself, and on the sure founda
tion of her self-knowledge, she comes to the knowledge
of God : "Teach me to know myself and I shall know
Thee." This state of darkness and aridity brings with it the
beginning of that liberty of the children of the Kingdom
which God bestows on the soul, when she has forsaken
all attachment to things without and all desires of the wiU
within. She is at liberty, because no longer held by
pleasurable delight without, and liberated from thei
tyranny of desires within ; she is no longer attached to the
sensible delights and sweetnesses of spiritual devotion,
having left them aU aside, that in the Hght of pure
faith she may cleave to God and seek only His
Pleasure. This night has fierce temptations, far more terrifying
and intense than the soul has experienced before. The
blasphemies of the Evil Spirit approach so close that the
soul imagines they are her own utterances, so vividly are
they impressed upon her, and she is stricken with horror
at the words that appear to come from her own heart and
even her own lips; or, again, she often suffers the most

NIGHT OF SENSITIVE PURGATION m
savage temptations to sins of impurity and lust that return
again and again with seemingly resistless force. The wfll
seems helpless before their cruel onset, and the soul, filled
with these fearfully vivid imaginations and representations,
is in terror and dread lest she has consented to them ;
perhaps there is no horror in the night of sense that can
quite compare with this.
She is distressed by all sorts of doubts and scruples ; no
sooner receives the assurance that she is in the right way
than another doubt arises, more distressing than the last :
so that she is always fearing she has not been understood,
that somehow something has been omitted that was vital
to explain her condition ; she is filled with a thousand
groundless fears, so that she distrusts both her own judg
ment and that of her guide ; and when at length she enjoys
some tranquility of soul, after a brief space, the peace
is broken by some fresh fear or anxiety.
But through it all, God is doing His own work in His
own way. The night may be long or it may be short :
this depends on the soul's progress and on the completeness
with which she abandons herself into God's hands, and
opposes no resistance to His designs. This is her prin
cipal work in this night, to abandon herself without
reserve, and lie passive in the Divine Hands, with no will
of her own save the desire that God's work may be accom
plished in her in the way and by what means it pleases
Him to do it.

CHAPTER Xn
THE NIGHT OF SPIRIT-PURGATION, PASSIVE
AND ACTIVE
We have traced briefly the path of the soul through that
active purgation of the senses, and also touched on that
passive purgation in which God is acting alone on the
soul, while she remains passive and unresisting in His
hands. Of course, all the work, even in the active
purgation, is wholly His, since she could do nothing on
her part to co-operate with Him, unless He quickened her
by His Grace to do so.
The length of this purgation depends wholly on the
Divine pleasure ; the active and passive purgations may
merge, as they often do, into each other, there may be
moments of wonderful spiritual refreshment in the dark
ness, more wonderful than any she has experienced before,
because more spiritual and not, as before, originating in
the sensitive part of the soul.
Through this purgation she may come to taste some
thing of the joys of the spirit-life, or she may proceed
directly into that dark night of spirit-purgation which sur
passes in its intensity of suffering anything she has known
before. And the senses suffer too, because their full and
final purification can only take place when the spirit has
been finaUy purged of aU that hinders her perfect union
with her Lord.
This night, says St. John of the Cross: "Is a certain
inflowing of God into the soul, which cleanses her of her
ignorances and imperfections, habitual, natural and spiritual
. . It is called by Mystics Infused Contemplation or Mystical
Theology, by which God secretly teaches the soul and

NIGHT OF SPIRIT PURGATION 113
instructs her in the perfection of love, without effort on
her own part, beyond loving attention to God, Ustening
to His Voice and admitting the light He sends, but with
out understanding how this is infused contemplation." '
This purgation is as night ; just as the sun shining in his
strength, when beheld by the eyes, produces darkness,
because the strength of his shining overcomes the power
of their receptivity and all becomes blackness ; so also
the soul, when the Divine Light of Contemplation
shines within her, is plunged in darkness, because that
light so far surpasses all her power of perception that she
is blinded by It."
In this night she must detach herself not only from all
creatures and all sensible sweetness and consolation,
but also from all spiritual satisfaction, and cling to God
by a bare living Faith alone. It is by Faith alone that we
know God : " Without Faith no man can see God." And
Faith is night to the soul, because Faith depends not on
observation but on the assent of the soul to that which
comes by hearing.
"Among all created things of which the understand
ing takes cognisance, there is nothing which can serve
as a ladder whereby it may ascend unto God, Who is so
high . . . the understanding if rightly disposed for the Divine
union must then be pure and empty of all sensible objects,
disengaged from all clear, intellectual perceptions, in
wardly tranquil and still, resting on Faith ; for Faith is the
sole proximate and proportionate means of the soul's union
with God, seeing there is no other alternative, but that
God is either seen, or beUeved in . . . and thus by
this means alone, that is, Faith, God manifests Himself
to the soul in the Divine light which surpasses aU under
standing." '
The soul has to direct her way to God alone, leaving-
aside all sensible sweetness of devotion, and all spiritual
manifestations, whether they come under the form of
sensible representations, perceivable by eye, ear, or
imagination, or are purely spiritual apprehensions in the
soul. These are the highest and most perfect of all, they
'¦ The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. II., cap. v., § 2.
' The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book II., cap iii., § i.
' ib.. Book n., cap. viii., ad fin. and ix.

114 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
are the communications of God to the soul, but they are
not Himself, and she is to rest only when she has become
one with Him. Moreover, the Devil may simulate all
these manifestations and use them to delude, or at least
hinder and mislead her. For this reason, she is not only
not to desire or seek such manifestations, but to resist
them with all her strength, since if they are from Him her
resistance will be vain, whereas if they come from the
enemy, she will by her resistance overcome him.
Walter Hylton says : ' ' The second sort of Contemplation
may be termed a burning love in devotion, and is the
lower." This other part is "a burning love in Con
templation, and is the higher. That is sweeter to the
bodily feeling, this to the spiritual feeling inwardly, and is
more worthy, more spiritual, more wonderful. . . This is
the enlightening of the understanding in deUghts of loving,
whereof David saith : ' My night is my light in my deUght.'
. . . To the perfection of this high contemplation may no
man come till he be first reformed in soul to the likeness of
Jesus in the perfection of virtues." '
" By this you may somewhat understand that visions,
or revelations, or any manner of spirit appearing
in bodily shape, or in imagining ... or any other
feeling . . . made as it were spiritually . . . though
it be never so comfortable and liking, yet be they
not very contemplation, but . . . secondary . . .
in respect ... of this spiritual knowing and loving
of God accompanying true contemplation. . . . AU
such manner of feeling . . . may be wrought by a
wicked angel when he transforms himself into an angel of
light. Wherefore since they may be both good and evil,
it appeareth they are not the best." '
" Hereby you may learn, that you are not to suffer
your heart willingly to rest nor to delight wholly in
any such bodily feelings of such manner of comforts and
sweetness, though they were good ; but rather hold them
in your sight naught, or little in comparison of spiritual
desire and stedfast thinking on Jesus ; nor shall you fasten
the thought of your heart over much on them." '
' The Scale of Perfection, Pt. I., cap. 9.
' ib., Pt. I., cap. 10.
^ ib., Pt. I., cap. II.

NIGHT OF SPIRIT PURGATION 115
The soul, in this bare night of Faith, must mount above
all the gifts, above all consolations sensible and spiritual,
above all imaginations and all possible conceptions, to
God His very Self. No conception her intellect forms,
no picture her imagination paints, since it must be framed
on some comparison of created things, can give any ade
quate conception of Him ; so in order that she may reach
Him, she has to abandon and empty herself of every
form, figure and imagination, that, all these being
removed by the way of bare Faith alone, she may come
to apprehend Him.
The memory must be so completely emptied of all that
it has drawn in from without, through the five bodily
senses, that it shall be as if they had never entered it.
When the memory is lifted up into God by divine union,
and every form and fancy of knowledge are removed from
it, the soul remains with her imaginary powers suspended,
and without perception of the passage of time, or of what
is passing round her, because of this union of her memory
with God. During these experiences, which are never
of great duration, the memory remains heedless of the
happenings around her, without reflection, oblivious of
time and filled with the presence of God, in a way she
cannot describe ; but even outside these moments of
intense union between her spirit and God, she has to
practise a continual mortification of the memory, not
suffering any impressions conveyed to remain, and striving
always to keep it empty and void that it may offer no
Tesistance to the Divine operations. By this continual
mortification, as St. John of the Cross points out,* she avoids
three evils, of which the first comes from the world. The
knowledge that enters her memory this way is often in
accurate, imperfect, gives rise to mistaken judgments,
and draws the soul into a multitude of cares and interests
which are of no importance to her either way. She will
not be called upon at the Judgment Day to say what she
had learned, known and thought of events around her ;
they only fill her with disturbing images and put a barrier
in the way of her spiritual advancement. Of course I do
not speak of those things she must know to fulfil the
' The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. DI., cap. ii., iii., iv.

1x6 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
duties of her state, but of those things that she is in no
wise obliged to know.
The second is, that the Devil uses the memory and
crowds it with all sorts of imasfinations. This troubles.
the soul, involves her in many dangers by exciting pride,
anger, and criticism, according to the objects set before
her. If she resolutely puts everything out of her memory,
the Devil has nothing on which he can lay hold and use
to deceive her.
Suppose she has suffered some great injustice or injury,
let her blot it out from her memory, as if it had never
been. If she remembers it, the Devil will use it to excite-
her to dislike or hatred of the one who inflicted it,,
whereas if it is altogether removed, he cannot use it.
The third evil is the disturbance and distraction of soul,,
that arises from the images stored in the memory.
Directly the mind dwells in memory on anything, it is
distracted according to the degree of affection or aversion
it has for the thing before it. If the memory presents-
something pleasant the soul will be stirred to joy, if some
thing unpleasant, it will be moved to sorrow ; in either-
case interior tranquillity will be disturbed, and as the soul
can only apply herself to one thing at a time, the intrusion
of these memories occupies her, and so arrests her pro
gress in the spirit-life.
If the soul then, will dwell "in peace, it must be by
emptying both memory and imagination of the images and
apprehensions which fill them ; they inevitably disturb her-
and fill her with useless disquiet. The dwelling on some
misfortune or injury does nothing to change it, only adding
sorrow to sorrow, and reproducing the original pain again.
The soul desirous of receiving the Divine impress must be-
freed of all these disturbing emotions and images, so that,
there being nothing within her to oppose His entrance,
she may receive her Lord with joy.
So far, we have looked at the soul in the active night,
and the way in which she may co-operate with the Divine-
Worker in His operations. There comes a time when He
alone is the Worker, and the soul must rest passive in His
hands, for Him to work His will in her.
The soul, in this passive night of the spirit, is stricken

NIGHT OF SPIRIT PURGATION 117
with the terrible thought, persistent and of fearful
intensity, that she is cast off and abandoned by God for
ever, that she shall never see the Face of Him Who is
the one sole desire of her life.
In her memory she suffers inconceivable agony, for, look
where she will, she only sees sin ; she seems never to have
responded aright to His Grace, her every thought and
desire appears to be tainted, she is so crushed and over
whelmed in the thick darkness of this awful night, that she
sees the Divine Face turned away from her, or reads upon
it only the stern sentence of her rejection. So unutterably
terrible is the anguish, and so awful the darkness that I
have wondered how the brain has kept its balance under
this awful strain, or indeed, that soul and body have kept
united. "At least," cried one in this dreadful night, "at
least He cannot stop my loving Him in this world ! ' ' The
poor heart, burning with love, loving with an ardour never
experienced before, growing the stronger as the certitude
of final and utter rejection pressed itself upon her, only
uttered its cry of love with stronger and more touching
fervour. Who can find words to describe the horror of this thick
darkness that may be felt, when the soul in her inteUect
finds only darkness ? She cannot pray ; she strives for
spirit-utterance, and seems held as in a vice, so that no
touch of sweetness and no ray of light comes to relieve the
inexpressible misery of her complete dereliction. And
yet, strange as it may seem, her love never falters or
varies ; through the darkness the soul strives to reach up
wards to Him, hidden as He is from her in this blackness
of darkness, which appears to her only the foretaste of the
blacker darkness that is yet to be.
Her will seems paralysed and helpless in the midst of
this terrible conflict, and yet it is in truth gaining a
strength never possessed before, and she is growing into a
love previously unknown, a love disinterested, stripped of
all things. She loves Him now for Himself alone : she
has ascended above all His gifts to the Divine Giver ; she
is emptied of aught that could give her any consolation,
she has reached that state in which He Himself alone can
console and satisfy her; His consolations, if given now.

ii8 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
would never satisfy the burning fire of love kindled within
her, which will never find satisfaction save in the Divine
union with her Love Himself.
In proportion as the soul reaUses God's greatness and
majesty, she knows her own misery : it is the Divine Light
shining upon her that brings the horror of this darkness,
because this light, so strong and overwhelming, plunges
the soul in darkness by its brightness.
Of herself she can only conceive the most intense horror.
How can He, with His choirs of angels and His hosts of
saints, rendering Him ever the most perfect service, vouch
safe even to regard her? She sees her own want
of every good in clearest Hght; every small trifle,
every defect of intention and will, every imperfection is
magnified ; she sees nothing but sin. And with this con
tempt of herself comes a wonderful esteem of others, their
virtues, their service. She is critical of none save herself.
All serve God better than she, and how can she hope for
His favour when He has all these to hasten to do His
slightest bidding ? "I am cast away from the sight of
Thy eyes." This is the terrifying reflection that grows so
intense that it blots out all else. His mighty love, His
wonderful mercy. His life-giving Passion, instead of
bringing comfort, only increase the agony, only make her
final banishment more sure. The very thought of His
Sacrifice and all His matchless love, only causes a greater
feeling of unutterable unworthiness of the very least of His
mercies, so that His very love itself only presses the soul
with a new pain and more torturing anguish. But He
loves her all the while.
To St. Angela of Foligno our Lord spoke these words,
when she was experiencing this darkness of desolation r
"When it seemeth unto thee thou art most forsaken, then
thou art the more beloved and the nearer unto God."
Another time when she was thus troubled, so that it
seemed unto her that she was forsaken, a voice spoke unto
her and said : " O Beloved, know that thou art not for
saken, but in' tribulation God tlie Almighty is nearer unto
thee and thou unto God."
This thick darkness is broken through, and occasionally
there falls upon her soul the white light of His presence

NIGHT OF SPIRIT PURGATION 119
and the piercing sweetness of His love, compared to which
all her previous experience is as nothing : and sometimes
the soul loses all conscious use of her senses till it is over
past. In this night the soul derives little or no comfort from
the advice given her by her spiritual guide ; she cannot
believe him, enveloped as she is in the cloud of this utter
darkness and desolation. She fears either that he has not
understood her, or that she has not manifested her state as
clearly as she ought ; if she had, he would have acted in a
different way; indeed often the comfort he offers is only
a source of fresh pain. She goes morning by morning to
receive her Lord, only under obedience. Every spiritual
perception being dried up within her and swallowed up in
the anguish of utter aridity and darkness, she feels she is
only inflicting a new injury on Him she loves so intensely,
every time she approaches to receive Him.
But He is infusing extraordinary strength to act, all un
known to her ; it is only this infused strength that enables
her to go on, for without it she would utterly fail. But
although it is there and she is using it, yet the way in
.which she is walking is so new and strange to her that she
does not recognise it. God Himself is acting now ; all the
faculties of the soul are reduced to absolute quiescence ;
He is working in her to transform her wholly unto Himself,,
taking away everything on which she may rest for support,
renewing her will and uniting it to His in such manner
that its operation may become wholly Divine.
Love grows during this fierce trial with marvellous
rapidity, because all the things that tended to disturb the
imagination and draw the will towards them are taken
away by this total voiding of the powers ; hence there is
no obstacle to the growth of love towards the one object
of her love.
St. John of the Cross pictures very vividly this mode of
Divine action on the soul : "This purgative and loving know
ledge, or Divine Light, is to the soul which it is purifying, in
order to unite it perfectly to itself, as fire is to fuel which it
is transforming into itself. The first action of material fire
on fuel is to dry it, to expel from it all water and all
tnoisture. It blackens it at once and soils it, and drying

I20 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
it Httle by Httle, makes it light and consumes all its foul
ness and blackness which are contrary to itself. Finally,
having heated and set on fire its outward surface, it trans
forms the whole into itself, and makes it beautiful as itself.
The fuel under these conditions of fire, retains neither
active nor passive qualities of its own, except bulk and
weight, and assumes all the properties and acts of fire.
. In this way the Divine fire of contemplative love,
before it unites with, and transforms the soul into, itself,
purges away all its contrary qualities . It expels its impurities,
blackens it and obscures it, and thus its condition is
apparently worse than it was before. For while the Divine
purgation is removing all the evil and vicious humours
which, because so deeply rooted and settled in the soul,
were neither seen nor felt, but now in order that they may
be annihilated and expelled are rendered clearly visible
in the dim Light of the Divine Contemplation, the soul —
though not worse in herself, nor in the sight of God —
seeing at last what she never saw before, looks upon her
self not only as unworthy of the Divine regard, but as a
loathsome object in the eyes of God. ' ' '
In the first place we see how that very light, and that
loving knowledge which unites the soul and transforms her
into itself, is the same which purifies and prepares her ; for
the fire that transforms the fuel and incorporates it with
itself, is the self-same, which also at first prepared it for
that end. In the second place, the suffering of the soul
does not proceed from the Divine Wisdom, but from her
own imperfection, from her incapacity previous to her
purgation, of receiving this Divine Light, sweetness and
delight, and that is the reason why her sufferings are so
great. So the fuel, too, is not transformed into fire at the
instant of their contact, if it be not previously prepared
for burning.
Through this fearful night the soul comes to attain her
end, union with her Lord : this night may be long, it may
lift and fall again and again. For, as I have said, God, in
His loving-kindness measures both the strength of the soul
in this terrific purgation, and the weight of suffering she
is able to bear, and gives periods of light and peace in
' The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. II., cap. x., § 2.

NIGHT OF SPIRIT PURGATION 121
which she may believe that all the darkness is finally past,
and yet it may return and her sufferings be renewed with
greater intensity than before, because, as long as anything
yet remains in the soul opposed to the Divine Union, she
must suffer.
But the soul has nothing to do in this state save to be
still : "Be still and you shall see the salvation of God."
So many want to be always doing, and think, unless they
are doing, that nothing is happening. Now the time has
come to be still and rest passive in the Divine Hands ;
and that the soul finds very hard. Just as a strong person
who has never known sickness, suddenly stricken by ill
ness, wants to get up and walk about when he must lie
down, so it is with the soul; she cannot understand what
is happening and why her condition is so changed. She is
unable to act in the way to which she has been accus
tomed ; she turns this way and that and finds only
desolation ; she looks for light and finds none. The
soul has got rid of all her external attachments ; she has
broken with all earthly affections, and given up her
cleaving even to spiritual consolation. But there is much
yet to do before she is ready for Divine Union. God is
doing this work Himself and taking away from her every
thing that may mar the completeness of that union. She
is now to be finally detached from herself, to lose every
thing, in which in any way she may rest. Just as when
the Apostles came out of the cloud they saw ' ' Jesus only, ' '
so when the soul comes out of the night of this final pur
gation, she will find "God alone," and with this shewing
of God alone she finds her peace in full and abundant
measure, since everything that could any way disturb that
peace has vanished away. She cleaves to naught here
below ; she abandons the past ; she abandons the present ;
she abandons the future ; and rests in the good pleasure of
her Love alone. His pleasure is her pleasure. His delight
her delight, for she now beholds all things with His Eyes
and wills all things with His will.

CHAPTER XHI
THE FIRST DEGREES OF CONTEMPLATIVE
PRAYER
We come now to the more interior and mystical states of
Prayer. As we look over this great Country of Mystical
Prayer, we realise our need of a map to give us an idea of
its configuration, and some map references by which we
may take our bearings. The map was a very important
article out in France and it was very necessary to know, at
least in an elementary way, how to read it and how to find
the map reference.
And we want a sort of spiritual map of this Country of
Mystical Contemplation, and some references by which we
may discover our position upon it.
Mystical Theology is largely experimental ; that is to
say, it is made up of the varied experiences of the soul in
the things of the spirit, and it is by comparing one with
another that the general lie of the country has been made
out. Of course there is a theoretical side also, but, generally
speaking. Mystical Theology is based rather upon experi
mental knowledge of God than theoretical — it proceeds
rather by induction than by a priori argument, and for this
reason it is more appealing and convincing. The
theoretical teaching that " fire burns " is brought home to
the child more vividly by his experience of the truth, through
actual contact with the flame, than by much theoretical
explanation. It is no wonder that when the soul tries to describe
something of her experience in this interior way, she
stammers and struggles to find words to express what she
has seen and heard, very much as a child who has seen
some wonderful sight searches in vain for some worda to
express it ; it is so with all mystical writers, they are ever
looking for words to express the inexpressible.
But the experiences of the soul must have some objective
standard by which they may be measured and tested ; this
122

FIRST DEGREES OF CONTEMPLATION 123,
standard and measure is supplied by the Dogmatic teaching
of the Church ; for, as St. John teaches, we must try the
Spirits "whether they be of God or not." In like manner,
all subjective experience must be tested by the Dogmatic
measure ; unless this external test existed, there would be
no limit to the vagaries and extravagances of subjective
experience, and truth might be confounded with falsehood
and falsehood with truth, as happens every day to those
who lay the soul open to the action of whatever spirit may
play upon her, and, casting aside the suire guidance of the
Divine Teacher, give themselves up to the indulgence of
their subjective emotions.
Every experience, every revelation, every showing, how
ever wonderful and satisfying it may appear, must be
brought to the test of Dogmatic truth ; if it conforms with
this standard it may be accepted as true, and, however pro
found and wonderful, it must be unhesitatingly rejected if
it does not. This is the teaching of all the great Mystical.
Masters of every age, and it affords a sure means of dis
cerning the true manifestations of the Spirit of God from
the clever counterfeit of the Spirit of Darkness.
In order the better to understand the operations of the
Spirit and the character of these degrees of Contemplation
which we shall consider, it is well to have in mind the
double way in which God's Grace operates in the soul;
the indwelling of habitual Grace which is permanent, and
actual Graces which are transient favours. Most of the
misunderstandings that have arisen around these various
degrees of Contemplation have resulted from the con
founding of transient graces with permanent, and of
permanent Graces with those that are transient.
Of these degrees of prayer, Recollection and Quiet are
permanent states ; Silence, Mystical Sleep, Intoxication of
Love, and Spiritual Anguish, are merely transient graces
experienced in tbe before-mentioned permanent states of
Contemplation. Again, the prayer of Union and the final degree of
Mystical Marriage are both permanent states, while Rapture
and Ecstasy are both transient Graces, experienced during-
the state of Simple Union and even in the Prayer of Quiet.
After all, we must remember that these degrees of prayer

124 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
are not sharply marked divisions, but are a gradual
growth, so that often the experiences of one state may
seem to overlap into another ; it is like the landscape,
where hill and dale are not mere hard and fast lines, but a
gradual merging of the one into the other. If we have
this in mind, our understanding of the soul-experience in
Contemplation will be much simplified.
The Prayer of Recollection marks the first stage of the
soul's passage, along the Road thaf leads to Divine Union.
It is called Recollection, because God caUs the faculties
of the soul away from the beholding of external things, with
in herself ; she becomes recollected instead of dissipated.
Before, when she let herself look through the five windows
of her senses on to exterior things, she drew in a multitude
of distracting and disturbing images, but by this withdrawal
within herself she forms for herself a solitude within. She
is a true solitary who encloses herself within herself from all
that is without. Solitude of soul is no mere material thing,
since a mere shutting out of worldly things would be in vain
if the imagination yet continued to busy itself with the
images of them ; then the soul would be as little recollected
as if she still, with all her faculties, walked abroad behold
ing and seeing all the objects of sense in this transitory
life. Walter Hylton, in the opening chapter of the " Scale of
Perfection ' ' says : "as thou hast forsaken the world and
turned to Our Lord bodily in sight of men, so thou be in
thy heart as it were dead to all earthly loves and fears, and
turned wholly to Our Lord Jesus Christ ; for be thou well
assured that a bodily turning to God without the heart
following is but a figure and likeness of virtues, and not the
truth in itself."
In like manner, wrote St. Catherine of Siena, to Ray
mond of Capua :
' ' You will be able to have the actual cell little, but I wish
you to have the cell of the heart always, and always carry
it with you. For as you know, while we are locked therein,
enemies can do us no wrong. Then every act you shall
-do will be guided and ordered by God."
Solitude is formed within by the soul withdrawing and
gathering together all her powers within herself, because

FIRST DEGREES OF CONTEMPLATION 125.
she has felt the attraction of the great reality. Her interest
and concern in temporal things is dried up ; she has no
desire to go without to find her satisfaction, because God
has become the one attraction and the one desire of her
life. True, she still uses her faculties to perform her duties,
whatever they be, of the state of life in which she is called,
but while the faculties perceive all that is necessary in order
that she may fulfil her duties, she does not look out of these
windows, but her habitual state is one of withdrawal and
recollection within.
The imagination with all its images is brought to rest,
and the soul experiences a wonderful drawing to solitude,
that she may be alone with her Lord. She is glad to be
solitary and seeks to be right away from everything that may
distract this interior recollection. Lovers always seek to
be alone, and no matter how familiar and well-known the
company in which they may be, they are not at ease,
because they are sufficient for each other, and they find the
old saying true, that two are company and three none. And
the soul is just entering on this stage of Love. God is her
Lover, and hence she desires to be alone with Him, and
finds all things without only get in her way ; so she gladly
rids herself of them, that she may attend to her Love alone.
This state may be attained by active effort, aided of
course by God's Grace, for every effort of the soul would be
in vain without the aid of the Spirit of God ; but it is also
and more frequently attained passively, when God Himself
acts upon the soul and she rests passive in His Hands. The
difference between the two ways of attaining this recollec
tion is, that while in the one case, helped by Grace, the
soul strives to close her windows and recollect all her
powers within herself, in the other God shuts them for her,
gathers all her powers within her, and the work of recoUec
tion in this latter case is both more rapidly attained and
more complete ; all the things of time fall away and the
soul retains neither lot nor interest in them.
1 he soul in this state of Recollection speaks to God with
out words ; she speaks the language of the Spirit, which has
no need of them for its expression.
She experiences an extraordinary overwhelming sense of
God's Presence within her, yet there is no suspension of the

J 26 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
faculties, even when she enters for the first time into this
interior Recollection, she expieriences a great sense of
wonder at the state on which she has entered, but remains
conscious of all that is happening around her. The soul,
persevering in this state of Recollection, advances onwards
into the Prayer of Quiet in which she rests with complete
and tranquil abandonment in God's Love, desiring nothing
save that His Will may be entirely done in her ; her peace
increases, she is satisfied with His Love, and desires
nothing else, except to continue and increase in it.
Just as the country gradually rises and ascends towards
the hill, so does this Prayer of Quiet rise out of that first
Prayer of Recollection.
Sometimes it is acquired by the active effort of the soul
¦co-operating with Grace ; more often it is passively infused
vdirectly by God. These are the two different ways in
which God acts upon the soul. We cannot comprehend
God's dealing with the soul or why He grants the grace of
this prayer to some and denies it to others. But we know
that it is so. Like the man born blind, in the Gospel, after
he had received his sight, the soul can only say : " Once
J was bUnd, but now I see."
After all, the answer is found in the words of the Master :
" Shall I not do what I will with my own." These Graces
are His to give or His to withhold. " I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy." Yet of this we may be sure,
that faithful correspondence to Grace is always a disposing
factor for more Grace, since we have the declaration of the
Saviour Himself that : " to him that hath shall be given."
The soul may be disturbed without, and the tempest of
temptation may rage around her, but this will not disturb
the Quiet in the superior part, of the soul. Many souls
attain to this state of Interior Quiet; not many pass beyond
it, because unready to travel the hard way of utter immola
tion and self-renunciation which further advance in the
mystical way demands. They come, as it were, in sight of
the promised land and yet never enter into it, because that
¦complete crucifixion and death of their whole nature which
must be accomplished before they rise to the new life of the
spirit is too terrifying, and so they hold back and rest on
the borders instead of entering, by way of fuU conformity

FIRST DEGREES OF CONTEMPLATION 127
and total detachment, into the Blessed liberty of God's
¦children and the possession of the land flowing with the
fullness of spiritual delight that can only be theirs who have
iorsaken all to find the All. In these two permanent states
the soul experiences other degrees of prayer that are really
transient. The Prayer of Silence may be experienced either while
in the state of Recollection or of Quiet.
This is an intense drawing up of the soul into God and
¦approaches near to Ecstasy, although there is no total
suspension in the operation of the soul's powers {i.e., she
is still conscious as to where she is) ; but there is only a
"very vague notion as to anything happening around her ;
the passage of time is unnoticed. She is filled with a most
overpowering sense of the Divine Presence, and to such a
degree, that when this wonderful experience, which the
soul finds herself utterly utiable to describe in words, has
passed, she exclaims : "There, I can never have a doubt
again ! " She seems to know,, what before she believed,
to have received a certitude of Divine Reality that trans
cends all reason.
God gives this experience anywhere ; the soul may be
occupied in some ordinary occupation, when God comes and
takes her thus out of herself ; or she may be at prayer, and
in a moment she is rapt in Him, He is present there, with
His Love and Light, holding her, lifting her up into this
"wonderful communion with Himself in which she becomes
forgetful of all else in the joy of His Presence.
We may form some idea of this effect on the soul from
the effect of some extraordinary sight in the natural order.
Taking a lorry through Ypres one day the driver, fresh
from England, was so astonished by the sight of the burst
ing of an 1 1 -inch shell on the roadside that he pulled up the
lorry to have a good look at the amazing sight — for a great
shell bursting at close quarters is an amazing sight — not
realising the danger, to the great discomfiture of the old
heroes, who were riding on the lorry with him, and who
had no desire for anything except to get as far as possible
from the unwelcome visitor. It was the wonder of the
sight that held him. It is so with the soul in this Prayer
•of Silence, when all her powers are held by the sight of

128 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
God. These transient Graces rarely exceed half an hour
in duration, although occasionally they may continue some
what longer ; the soul would scarcely be able to endure a
longer experience.
The second transient degree of Contemplation — called
the Intoxication of Divine Love — is so named because the
soul is so overcome by the inflow of Divine Grace that she
becomes as if inebriated with wine and bereft of reason.
This wonderful manifestation of Love sometimes over
flows from the spirit into the body, and its presence is
manifested in different ways, in accordance with the
different characteristics of the recipients. While Grace
transforms nature, it does not change it, and every Grace
is received according to the character of the receiver.
Some souls, naturally emotional, will manifest by
external signs and words the greatness of the joy that fills
them ; unable to contain themselves in that inflow of God's
Light and Love which they have received in the spirit,
their sensitive nature gives outward expression to their in
ward feeling in rapturous utterance and transports of joy.
This is the case more particularly with those less advanced
in the spirit-life, because less restrained and controUed
under the Divine influence than those who are more
advanced in mystic ways.
Some souls are naturally restrained and rarely give way
to any outward manifestation of their emotions. In them,
these transports of Divine Love are experienced only in the
soul, ravishing her out of herself with their overpowering
sweetness, so that she is ready to sing for joy within her
self, just as others, more emotional, utter their songs of joy
and jubilation without, singing in spiritual canticles to the
Lord. The more perfect manifestation is that which is
experienced in the soul alone and does not overflow into
sensitive nature, and therefore has no external manifesta
tion. But we cannot set bounds to the working of God's Grace,
or lay down rules for Him, and in the presence of these
manifestations of His Love and Power we can only admire
His gracious working amongst the children of men.
These intense transports of Divine Love, whether
experienced only in the soul, or outwardly manifested, are

FIRST DEGREES OF CONTEMPLATION 129
of brief duration, although they may recur again and again,
and are granted by God to strengthen and encourage the
soul in the sufferings in the purgative way, through which
she must pass to attain her complete purification.
The third transient degree of Contemplation is that of
Mystical Sleep, during which all the powers of the soul
remain suspended. In this sweet tranquillity the soul per
ceives nothing new, by which this degree of prayer is
differentiated both from ecstasy and rapture. The soul
simply rests in supreme confidence and trust in her Lord,
neither seeing nor desiring anything, save to rest sweetly
in Him. Although during this time she remains merely
quiescent, yet when she returns to herself, she finds she is
strengthened and her power of acting greatly increased. It
gives that refreshment and strength to her in the spiritual
order that sleep brings to her in the natural order.
These suspensions of the soul's power, like those before
mentioned, are never of great duration, rarely indeed
exceeding half an hour, although in some few extraordinary
cases they may be more prolonged.
These three degrees prepare the way for the fourth, the
Torment of Divine Love, which immediately precedes th^
soul's passage into the life of simple union and in which
the soul's longing for the Bridegroom is so intense that it
becomes very torture to her. We have all experienced it
more or less in the natural order, when one very dearly
loved is returning after long absence. As the days draw
nearer for his coming, we feel a growing pain at the heart,
increasing as the days pass, until at length the day eagerly
looked for comes at last, and with straining eyes we stand
on the platform watching the incoming train, as it slowly
— so very slowly, as it seems to us — approaches. The
pain of these last moments is strangely yet sweetly pierc
ing, beyond all that has gone before, because the very near
ness of the one loved only makes the sense of separation
the more intense.
And then, who shall describe the joy of possession ?
But such a comparison is hopelessly inadequate and help
lessly imperfect, and can only very feebly indeed convey
any idea of the soul-experience, as the day of union draws
near; its Very nearness causes a piercing of the heart, so
K

ISO SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
sweet and yet so supremely painful, that unless these
moments were shortened death would surely come. The
soul is impatient to rush forward into the very embrace of
God, and that it is delayed, and that the moment has not yet
come, wounds her with a wound which only the possession
of her God and her Love can heal.
St. John of the Cross thus describes it : " This pain is like
dying ; it is as if the whole soul were festering because of its
wound. It is dying a Uving death until love, having slain it,
shall make it live the life of love, transforming it in love.
This dying of love is effected by a single touch of the know
ledge of the Divinity ; it is the ' I know not what ' ; of which
the creatures are speaking indistinctly. This touch is not
continuous, nor great — for then soul and body would part,
but soon over, and thus the soul is dying of Love and dying
the more when it sees that it cannot die of love.'
 The wounds of love are so deliciously sweet,
that if they do not kill, they cannot satisfy the soul.
It says : as Thou art the cause of its pain in the affliction
of love, be Thou also the cause of its health by a death
from love ; so the heart, wounded by the pain of Thy
absence, shall be healed in the deUght and glory of Thy
sweet presence. ' ' "
The soul stands now with this eager longing on the very
verge of the life of union. But she must abandon all, that
she may have the Bridegroom. God's price is everything,
and if the smallest thing is held back the union cannot be
accomplished ; she must be dead to everything save Him
alone. And running parallel with these experiences is the fierce
purgation of the night of the spirit. What a paradox the
spirit life is — "sorrowing, yet always rejoicing." The
soul experiences light and darkness. There is an intoxica
tion of sorrow as well as of joy. So these wonderful
moments, as the soul stands in sight of the promised land
and the possession of Love, are fraught with tremendous
consequences ; because to possess, she must give so much ;
not nine-tenths — as some want to give — but all. Her
Lover is a very jealous lover, and He will be satisfied with
nothing less than the whole.
' The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza vii., § 4.
' ib.. Stanza ix., § 2.

CHAPTER XIV
THE LATER DEGREES OF CONTEMPLATION-
SIMPLE UNION—ECSTASY— RAPTURE-
SPIRITUAL MATRIMONY
All the previous experiences of the soul, all the graces
of contemplative prayer already bestowed are but prepara
tions for her union with her Lord. They all lead up,
through the life of Simple Union and Betrothal, to the
final consummation in that Mystical Marriage, the highest
degree of union possible on earth, in which the soul
possesses and sees God, not indeed with the full clear
light of Eternity, but in a light between that of Faith and
the Face-to-Face Vision : for in that degree of Contempla
tion there is a real seeing of God by the soul, which seeing
exceeds all telling, for no words can describe it.
The soul, having passed through those final fierce pur
gations of Spirit in which her whole nature is purified
and all her powers renewed and transformed by the
Divine Action, arrives at the state of Simple Union.
This Union is wrought by Love, since Love alone makes
it possible, and her will becomes one in operation with the
Will of God. In this state she has no desire and no action
of her own, since all her actions are wrought by God Him
self : indeed, the state of union, and, in particular, the
perfect union of Mystical Marriage, is spoken of by
mystical writers as the Deification of the Creature.
Describing the soul's entry on the way of Simple Union,
St. John of the Cross says : "The soul is now like a virgin
betrothed and beholds herself growing into perfect
love. The spiritual marriage of the soul and the
Son of God now remains to be accompUshed. This
is, beyond all comparison, a far higher state than
that of betrothal, because it is a complete trans
formation into the Beloved ; whereby they surrender
each to the other the entire possession of themselves in
the perfect union of love, wherein the soul becomes Divine,
i3»

132 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
and, by participation, God, so far as is possible in this life.
I believe that no soul ever attains to this state, without
being confirmed in grace, for the faithfulness of both is
confirmed ; that of God being confirmed in the soul. Hence
it follows that this is the very highest state possible in this
life.'" The soul, then, when she attains this state, has been so
brought into union with her Lord that she beholds all
things and all events through the light of the Divinity.
She is no longer disturbed by any exterior happenings,
however overshadowing and inexplicable, since she sees
the Divine Will controlling all things, without which
nothing does or can befall. Thus she wills all things to
happen as they happen, because such is His Will. And
she is at rest, because she has no desires, no plans, no
objects of her own. She is distracted by no imaginations,
and disquieted by no self-seeking, since she has no
ambitions, no interests, apart from Him. Temptations
may yet assail the lower part of her soul, but they cannot
disturb the superior part, because there, utterly detached
from all things, she enjoys that interior peace that is only
won when she has made the perfect immolation of herself
to her Lord.
Love makes likeness, for lovers always incline more and
more to oneness of head and heart ; even if at their first
coming together their interests and tastes differ in certain
ways, yet, as the effect of love is to unify, so, as love per
forms its work, they come to oneness in interest and will.
It is impossible for union to exist without conformity of
will, for to the extent that the will differs in each the
lovers are divided, and, unless one surrenders the things
that are the cause of division, separation will ensue. But
the lover has no thought except to please the loved, and
sacrifices gladly everything that causes displeasure, for
love manifests itself in the eager desire to please and give
pleasure. Hence the soul is ever striving to rid herself of every
thing that may in any way be a source of displeasure to
her Love. And as by her active efforts alone this could
not be accomplished, her Love Himself performs the work
in her, through the great purgation of sense and spirit,
' The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza xxii., § 3.

LATER DEGREES OF CONTEMPLATION 133
taking away all that may oppose itself to Him, and, when
she is thus entirely emptied of all things, fiUing her with
Himself, so that her very loving itself is His action in
her. How can any mere words explain this wonderful trans
formation and renovation of the soul, by which she par
takes of the very life of the Bridegroom, and sees fulfilled
in herself His promise that she shall live her life by Him ?
And so she loves Him by means of His Love, since His
Love is in her, supplying heT weakness and bestowing
upon her a power of beholding and loving that is not her
own : everything is from Him. She in Him and He in
her, thus they are perfect in one.
From the first days of her entry on the unitive way her
love is ever growing and increasing ; love begets love, and
the more she loves, the more ardently the fire of this love
burns within her.
She sees in God, as she loves in Him. As He is the
source of her loving. He is also the source of her seeing.
That seeing in God is a wonderful elevation of the soul
by which she sees her Love and all things with His Divine
Eyes, just as she loves Him with His Divine Love.
During these days of her espousals, these days in which
she is united in love and will with Him, she is not yet per
fected in all her powers, as she wUl be in the state of
mystical marriage, so that, when He comes to her in these
marvellous shewings, she is wrapt up out of herself, all
her faculties suspended, and, for the period of that visita
tion, she is totally unconscious of everything happening
around, lifted up into the spirit by this Divine Communica
tion. So St. Paul, speaking of his own ecstasy, says :
"Whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell,
God knoweth." And St. John says : " I was in the spirit,"
to describe his mystic elevations and seeings; not that his
spirit had actually departed from the body, but that, all
the natural operations being suspended, he saw only in the
spirit. It is not surprising that this Divine shewing should thus
deprive the soul of its normal consciousness, seeing that
any very marvellous manifestation, even in the natural
order, produces a somewhat similar effect ; the beholder

134 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
sees, hears and perceives nothing until he returns to him
self, save that which has so powerfully affected him.
Rapture and Ecstasy are alike in that they both result
from a beholding so transcending our ordinary powers of
perception that all the senses are suspended and the body
is reduced to unconsciousness, but they differ in this, that,
while Rapture is the sudden and almost instantaneous
suspension of the faculties. Ecstasy is the gentle gliding
of the soul into this suspension of her powers ; in both
cases the beginning is attended with physical suffering and
natural fear, because the soul, perceiving its coming,
struggles to resist, which she ought to do with all het
strength, for her resistance will be successful if the visita
tion is not from God, whereas if it is Divine her efforts to
resist will be in vain.
The soul will be caught up in this way, by one of these
marvellous shewings, and so intense will be the spiritual
impression that she is ravished out of herself, and all her
natural powers arrested, during this time in which she sees
in spirit the great things of God. This sight of God pro
duces such an excess of love that she remains fixed in this
beholding. Everything of earth, all perceptions of material
things altogether cease, and she is inundated with the
sweetness and joy of the presence of her Love. " So great
at times," says St. John of the Cross, "is the
suffering of the soul during these ecstatic visitations
- — and there is no other pain which so wrenches
the very bones, and which so oppresses our natural
forces — that, were it not for the special interference
of God, death would ensue. And such it is to the soul
. for she feels as if released from the body and a
stranger to the flesh. Such graces cannot be perfectly
received in the body, because the spirit of man is lifted
up to the communion of the Spirit of God, Who visits
the soul, and she is therefore of necessity in some measure
a stranger to the body."^ Walter Hylton says:
' ' The soul is first reformed by perfection of virtues
to the image of Jesus, and afterwards, when it pleaseth
God to visit her, she is taken in from all earthly and fleshly
affections, from vain thoughts and imaginings of bodily
• The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza xiii., § 4.

LATER DEGREES OF CONTEMPLATION 135
creatures, and, as it were, ravished and taken up from the
bodily senses, and then by the grace of the Holy Ghost
is enlightened to see Truth itself (which is God) and
spiritual things with a soft, sweet, burning love in God, so
perfectly that she becometh ravished with His love, and
so the soul for the time is become one with God, and con
formed to the image of the Trinity." '
The soul is now adorned within by many virtues . Through
her one-ing with her God, she attains humility ; she sees
that everything wrought within her is not her work but
His, and this humiUty is that by which she esteems herself
to be truly nothing. Beholding all things in Him, she
burns with the most ardent love to all other souls, count
ing them all far more pleasing to Him than herself. She
is fiUed with amazement at His choice of her and at all the
wonderful works He performs in her. Pride can find no
lodging in her, for she knows that, if for an instant His
Hand was withdrawn, she would fall instantly into her
original misery and nothingness.
And so great is the power of this transforming of Love
that it manifests itself even outwardly : for souls lifted up
to this life of union shew even in their external actions a
nobility, a gentleness and a sweetness, through which is
clearly seen the spirit by which they are led.
The soul now advances, with Love ever increasing within,
to the final stage of her pilgrimage, her Mystical Marriage
with the Bridegroom, in which the union between them is
perfected. The Devil employs every means to hinder and distract
her, to trip her up in some small matter in her total
abandonment to the Divine Will, for if he can but turn
her glance for a little to the most insignificant trifle, he
feels he has done much ; he rejoices more at a small im
perfection in her — ^because it will hold her back from the
perfect union to which she is hastening — than a grievous
sin in one who is imperfect. He strives to use the senses
and disturb the imagination to trouble her peace ; he can
not reach the supreme part of her soul, however much he
strives, to excite fear and dread in her sensitive faculties.
And now she is ready for that perfect union by which
• The Scale of Perfection, Bk. I., pt. i., cap. 8.

136 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
she shall be one with her Love. "Love," says St. John
of the Cross "produces such a resemblance by the
transformation of those who mutually love that one
may be said to be the other, and both but one." '
So St. Paul says : " I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me." How wonderful, how close this
union, in which the Beloved lives in the loving soul and
the loving soul in the Beloved.
The bride-soul is now transformed into the Bridegroom.
"As by natural marriage there are two in one flesh, so
also in spiritual marriage between God and the soul there
are two natures in one spirit and love : ' He who
is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.'"'
"In this marriage the two natures are so united, what is
Divine is so communicated to what is human, that, without
undergoing any essential change, each seems to be God —
yet not perfectly so in this life, though still in a manner
which can never be described nor conceived." ^
In this Embrace of God the soul attains her perfection,
the consummation of all the sufferings and all the graces
that have been given her ; all has been directed to this
one end, perfect union with the Bridegroom through this
Spiritual Marriage.
For the union between lovers is only perfected by mar
riage ; it is then they become truly one. It is so with the
soul and God : perfect union is through this mystic
marriage. The soul henceforth has so given herself to
God, and He has so given Himself to her, that every
operation within her has become Deified. Her will works
with perfect harmony with His, and not only so, but she
is so thus in Him and He in her, that there is more than
conformity, there is uniformity of will, by which she looks
for that which is pleasing to Him ; His pleasure, and His
delight are likewise hers, and she enjoys that peace which
the world cannot give, neither can it take away ; she rests
her peace on nothing save the Bridegroom alone. He is
her peace, and so as the world cannot give Him, neither
can it take Hira from her or her from Him. Her every
moment is also His : she thinks in Him, she acts in Him,
' The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza xii., § 7.
" ib.. Stanza xxii., § 3.
" ib.. Stanza xxii., § 5.

LATER DEGREES OF CONTEMPLATION 137
she moves in Him, she loves in Him, she lives her whole
Hfe in Him and she rests in Him.
She has advanced from those far-off days when she began
to love very imperfectly, with much self-seeking and self-
loving, blended with her love of Him, gradually progress
ing, slowly and by successive purgations, becoming less
self-seeking and self-loving, and ever increasing in her
love of Him, until now her love has become such that she
has become conformed to the express image of His Like
ness. Self-seeking and self-loving have been finally
destroyed and she has eyes and heart for Him alone. She
never seeks her own satisfaction, pleasure or gratification ;
she never desires to follow her own inclinations, or has
any interest of her own. He is her All, she has so abso
lutely and unconditionally given herself to Him in this
union, that He fills her whole being ; in a way that passes
conception, all her works while wrought by Him yet remain
hers. Love is the beginning and Love the ending : ' ' He that
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." Love
feeds itself upon beholding; the soul's one beholding is
her Love, as perfectly as such is possible here below.
There is life in the beholding ; as those who looked on the
brazen serpent in the wilderness found life, so the soul
finds her life in the beholding of Him who is her life.
Just as Eve, by turning her eye to behold the creature,
lost the Creator and found death, so has the soul, by utterly
turning away her eyes from the creature and fastening
them upon the Creator, found her true life in Him.
St. John of the Cross thus endeavours to describe some
thing of this life of Love, that yet transcends all description :
' ' The operation of the Holy Ghost in a soul transformed in
His love is this ; His interior action within her is to kindle
and set on fire, this is the burning of love, in union with
which the will loves most deeply, being now one in love with
that flame of fire. And thus the soul's acts of love are most
precious, and even one of them more meiritorious than
many elicited not in the state of transformation. The
transformation in love differs from the flame of love as
habit differs from act, or as the glowing fuel from the

138 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
flame it emits, the flame being the effect of the fire which
is burning.
' ' Hence the ordinary state of a soul transformed in love
is that of fuel in the midst of the fire ; the acts of such
a soul are the flames which rise up out of the fire of love,
vehement in proportion to the intensity of the fire of
union, and to the rapture and absorption of the will in the
flame of the Holy Ghost." '
The soul prays only for that which God wills her to pray,
for that He wills her not to pray she does not pray, —
formerly, in her eagerness to be dissolved and come to
Him and see Him face to face, she prayed that death might
swiftly come, but now she prays only that it may come
when He wants it to come, she longs only that in all things
He may have the full satisfaction of His good pleasure : so
her prayers are no longer vehement and impetuous as once,
for now even all her prayers are divine, since the Spirit
itself prayeth within her with groanings that may not be
uttered. Identical in thought with this are the words of Our
Lord to Juliana of Norwich : "I am the ground
of thy beseeching. First it is My will that thou
have it, and since I make thee to will it, and to be
seech it, and thou beseechest it, how should it then be
that thou shouldst not have thy beseeching.""
Of the soul's experience after the Mystical Marriage,
Ruysbroeck says : "This simple unity can be had by none,
save those who stand before the immense brightness and
before Love above reason without restraint. In this
presence the soul feels herself ceaselessly inflamed with
love ; and in this glow of love she finds neither beginning
nor end, and she feels herself one with this burning fire
of love. The spirit remains always on fire in herself, for
her love is eternal, and she feels herself consumed with
love ; for she is attracted towards the refreshment of union
with God, in which she burns with love. If she observes
herself, she finds a distinction between herself and Gpd,
but where she burns she is pure and there is no distinction,
and that is why she feels nothing save unity ; for the im-
' The Living Flame of Love, Stanza i., §§ 3, 4.
" The Bevelations of Juliana of Norwich XIV., cap. xii.

LATER DEGREES OF CONTEMPLATION 139
measurable flame of the Divine Love consumes and
swallows up all it has enveloped in its course .
the attracting unity of God is naught save boundless love
. and we desire to be burnt and consumed in that
love everlastingly, for in it the blessedness of all souls
is found ... we shall wander in that measureless
love and it will lead us away into the boundless expanse
of the love of God. There will be flow and outflow beyond
ourselves in the unknown pleasure of the divine goodness
and riches. There will be an eternal fusion and trans
fusion, absorption and re-absorption of ourselves in the
glory of God."
' ' And the coming of the Bridegroom is so swift that
He is ever coming, and He dwells within us with His
exhaustless riches, and He is ever returning anew with
such new brightness that it seems as if He had never come
before. For the coming is beyond all limit of time, in an
eternal NOW, and He is ever received with new desires
and new delight. The joys and the pleasures which this
Bridegroom brings with Him at His coming are boundless
and limitless, for they are Himself. And this is why the
eyes of the spirit, by which the loving soul beholds her
Bridegroom, are opened so wide that they will never shut
again. For the contemplation and the fixed gaze of the
spirit are eternal in the secret manifestation of God. And
the comprehension of the spirit is so widely opened as it
waits the appearance of the Bridegroom, that the spirit
itself becomes as vast as that which it comprehends. And
so is God beheld and understood by God in Whom all
blessedness is found."
She is lost, swallowed up in His Love, like the fuel in
the fire she has become fire ; lost in love she has become
love, and although she is still on earth her life is in
Heaven. And she possesses already something of the
tranquil rest of the Divinity. Nothing disturbs and
nothing troubles her ; she is not troubled even by all her
manifold sins and imperfections in the past ; nor is she
troubled by the like in others ; she lives in this utter and
tranquil abandonment to the Divine good pleasure of the
Bridegroom in all things.

I40 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
St. Angela of Foligno tries to tell something of her
experience in this state.
' ' Once in prayer, and lifted up in spirit, God spoke to
me, and looking up I saw God.
" But if you ask what I saw, I tell you that I saw Him,
and more than this I know not how to tell, save that I
saw a fulness and brightness with which I felt myself so
greatly filled, that I know not how to speak of it, nor can
I offer any simiHtude.
Yet I saw not anything like a body, but it was as it is
in Heaven, so great a beauty that I know not how other
wise to speak of it, save that I saw the Highest Beauty
that contains all good. And all the saints stood before
that fair Majesty to praise Him ; moreover it seems to me
that I stood therein but a little while, and God said to me :
' My most loving and sweet daughter, all the saints of
paradise have for thee a special love and My Mother like
wise, and I shall join you to their company.' Moreover,
although these things were said to me, yet all that was
said concerning His Mother and the saints seemed to me
but little. But I was so delighted in Him, and so great
was the sweetness which I felt concerning Him that I
cared not to look at either Angels or Saints, for I saw that
all the good, all the beauty of Saints and Angels was from
Him and in Him and He Himself was All, the Highest
Good and All Beauty, and I cared not to look at any
creature . . ."
' ' It was said to me that the aforesaid unutterable mani
festation of God is the same good which the Saints possess
in life eternal, nor is this good other than the aforesaid,
but then it is another kind of experience, and only different
from the aforesaid in that the least saint who possesses
thereof in eternal life hath more than can be given to any
soul in this present life, before the death of the body, and
my soul in that unutterable manifestation understood
this. " Very often my soul is lifted up to God, nor is my consent
required, because while I neither hope nor think anything
of Him, of a sudden my soul is raised to God and our Lord,
and I take in the whole world, and it seemeth to me I am
not on earth, but am staid in Heaven in God, and this

LATER DEGREES OF CONTEMPLATION 141
most unutterable state is far above all the other states
which I have experienced, for it is of such fulness, clear
ness and certainty and such ennoblement and enlargement
that I feel no other approaches it."
She has abandoned the past, she has abandoned the
present, she has abandoned the future, she has abandoned
herself and gone out of herself into Him.
And she awaits that final movement of love, when the
torrent of love within her becomes so overwhelming that
the last link that holds soul and body together is broken
in its mighty tide, and she sees her Love face to face.
So magnificent, so inconceivably splendid is the height
to which it pleases God our Lover to lift up the soul, even
in this world, if she raises no obstacle to the free course
of His operation, that He could say to St. Angela of
Foligno, "Thou art I, and I am Thou."
And yet, alas ! how few possess this glorious liberty,
this matchless peace, and secure rest, which God, our
King, our Redeemer, our Lover, is ready to bestow on the
soul that will cast herself passive into His blessed hands.
How clearly souls see the blessedness and peace that can
be theirs, and yet they hold back. "Yes : I can see it is
the only way, I know that the peace is indeed all you say,
but I cannot pay the price." For the price is All. This
blessed, glorious, total abandonment of our whole being,
our past, our present, our future, into the Divine hands,
without a single reservation of any sort whatsover.
"God," said little Sister Teresa, "will refuse me nothing
in heaven, because I have refused Him nothing on earth."
She, in her inimitable way, tells the whole secret. When
a soul makes this total immolation, then God can work and
bring her to those sublime heights, which, as we have
shewn, even in this world are, as it were, a very shewing
of Eternity.
"With a great price gained I this freedom," may the
soul say that has embraced this blessed way of immolating
herself entirely to her King and Lover : then He finds
nothing to resist the operation of His Spirit in her, the
more absolute and complete that immolation, the greater
the facility with which His work will be done.
But sad as it is to see those who never thus strive to cast

142 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
themselves without reserve into the Divine arms, still
more sad is it to behold those who went far along the way^
and then, because there was yet something to which they
clqng, went back, like those disciples long ago, "who
turned back and walked no more with Him." They came
so near, and they could have given Him so much glory;
we can see where they might be now, where, as we beheld
them then, we felt assured they would be, but, alas ! they
held back part of the price at one crucial moment, and
brought no fruit to perfection.
If we want to reach the blessed experience of those who
are called to the Marriage of the Lamb, we must give all :
He gave all. He will give all, but He will have all.
There awaits this glorious life of Light and Love, and
the very embrace of God for that soul that, leaving all, will
Ukewise leave herself, that, emptied of all. He in His great
love may come and fill her and have her for His own.

CHAPTER XV
VISION— VOICES— REVELATIONS—
STIGMATIZATION
We now come to consider those unusual and, as some
call them, extraordinary graces and manifestations, such
as Visions, Voices, Revelations, which sometimes accom
pany the mystical experience of which we are speaking.
Unusual and extraordinary, in the sense, that it is possible
to attain the highest degree of union with God by Mystical
Marriage without them, they enter into the world of
mystical experience, and therefore must be taken into
account. It may be objected that Rapture and Ecstacy are also
extraordinary experiences and should fall under the same
category. To this I answer that while, under some aspects,
they may be considered as exceptional experiences, yet
they are on a wholly different plane from Visions, Voices,
Revelations, and other extraordinary manifestations.
These latter are independent of the soul's progress in
grace, and indeed may be bestowed upon those not in grace
at all, while supernatural Rapture and Ecstacy are simply
the result of the Divine showings overpassing the weakness
of the human instrument that receives it, much in the same
way as the natural eye is blinded by the direct sight of the
sun. Indeed, even in the natural order, the beholding of
some supremely amazing sight temporarily arrests the per
ceptive powers of the soul from all else ; if this occurs in
merely natural things, it is not surprising that similar
results are produced by the beholding of supernatural
things. Such overpassing of the soul's powers is not infrequent
in those who are in the earlier stages of the unitive life, but
143

144 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
when the soul has received increased strength by the final
consummation of Mystical Marriage, then these experiences
cease, because the powers of the soul have received a
shadowing of that perfect beholding in Heaven, where,
despite the inexplicable wonder of the shewing, the soul's
powers are made equal to the perception of it.
But many of the experiences we are here describing are
of an entirely different character. Visions and Voices, at
least, may be seen and heard not only by souls in grace,
but by those out of grace ; moreover they can proceed from
Satanic as well as from Divine agency, because the devil
can simulate the Divine action, as we see in the case of
Moses before Pharaoh. The Patriarch's wonders were
imitated by the magi of Egypt, but imitation must always
stop short as theirs did ; it can never be co-equal with
reality. I know there are some who would seem to argue that
every extraordinary manifestation must necessarily be evil
and of Satanic origin. Surely such an attitude is as mis
taken as the contrary opinion, that all such shewings are
Divine and to be trusted implicitly. Where God works
there the Devil works also, and by his simulated wonders
strives to deceive the soul with false Visions and Revela
tions. The fact that there are false Visions and Revela
tions is no more an argument against the existence of the
true, than the existence of the true is an evidence that none
are false. The existence of base coin proves, not that all
coin is base, but that true coinage exists ; if the true did
not exist, there would be no imitation.
I take first the matter of Visions, which are of three
kinds : (i) Sensitive, that is, perceived by the natural eye ;
(2) Imaginative, that is, received in the imagination ; (3)
Intellectual, that is, seen in the intellect alone.
Sensitive visions are easily the most common. It is
almost impossible to have any large circle of friends in any
part of the world without coming across someone, at least,
who, at one period or another of his life, has not had
experience of these visions. The natural eye sees them,
whether by the removal of some veU that hides the super
natural — as is suggested in the case of the young man with
Eliseus : "The servant of the man of God, rising early,

VISION— VOICES— REVELATIONS 145
went out, and saw an army round about the city, and
horses and chariots ; and he told him saying : — ' Alas, alas,
my lord, what shall we do ?' He answered : — ' Fear not,
for there are more with us than with them.' And Eliseus
prayed and said : 'Lord open his eyes, that he may see.'
And the Lord opened the eyes of the servant and he saw :
the mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire round
about Eliseus ' ' — or by an angel or spirit assuming some
fnaterial body, in order that they may be seen through the
medium of natural sight.
Such visions as these may accompany the early stages of
Contemplation, although they will generally be wholly
absent in the more perfect degrees of it. When God is
their Author they always produce the effect He designs,
as in the case of the Jew Ratisbonne, to whom Our Lady
appeared in the Church of St. Andrea della frate in Rome ;
he entered it a scoffing unbeUever and came out with the
gift of Faith. These visions may occur to those already in
grace, as to Sister Teresa of Lisieux, when the statue of
Our Lady assumed the appearance of life on the occasion
of her miraculous cure.
The evil angels make their appearance both as angels of
light — as the Devil appeared to St. Martin of Tours, in
glittering glory, pretending to be the Saviour and demand
ing Divine worship — or in all their terrifying and unmasked
malignity, as the Devil again appeared to St. Martin, as
he lay djring, who beholding his ancient enemy, exclaimed :
" Beast of blood, thou shalt have no part in me : " — or
simply to trouble and disturb God's servants, as by the
strange fire with which they sought to hinder the monks in
building Monte Cassino ; and also in other ways manifold, of
which we have abundant evidence in these last days.
Of course, no angel or spirit, good or bad, can appear to
anyone in this way, without the Divine permission.
Walter Hylton thus describes how the nature of the
appearance may be determined : " All 6uch feelings may be
good, wrought by a good angel, and they may be deceivable,
wrought by a wicked angel, when he transfigures himself
into an angel of light. For the Devil may, when he hath
leave, counterfeit in bodily feeling the likeness of the same
things which a good angel may work. For just as the
L

146 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
good angel cometh with light so can the Devil. And as
he can do this in matters of seeing, so can he do in matters
of the other senses." ' He gives this rule for the discerning
of the true from the false, which may also serve in the case
of revelations and locutions. "Beware in that time
(of the shewing) or soon after, and wisely consider
the stirrings of thy heart ; for if by the occasion of the
pleasure and Uking thou takest in the said seeing or vision,
thou feelest thy heart drawn from the minding and behold
ing of Jesus, and from spiritual exercises and thinking of
thyself and thy defects, or the inward desire of virtues and
the spiritual knowing and feeUng of God, to set the sight
of thy heart, affection, deUght, and rest principally on the
said feelings or visions, then this feeling is suspicious and
likely to come from the enemy ; therefore, be it never so
liking and wonderful, refuse it and assent not thereto, for
this is a, sleight of the enemy. . . . But if it so be that
manner of feeling maketh thee more devout, more fervent
in prayer, and though it be so that it astonish thee in the
beginning, yet afterwards it turneth and quickeneth thy
heart to more desire of virtues, increaseth thy love to God
and thy neighbour, maketh thee more humble in thine own
eyes — by these tokens thou mayest know that it is of God,
wrought by the presence and working of a good angel." '
The second kind of vision is that called Imaginative.
This is produced in the imagination with all the vividness
and intensity of reality, so vivid and so real that the
beholder often believes that what is shewn is seen by the
natural eye. These visions are more subtle and produce
a stronger impression on the soul than the visions which
are merely sensitive. Sometimes they are of events already
past, at other times of things that are still future, or again
of things happening in an entirely different part of the
worid from that in which the beholder is living. Thus St.
Benedict beheld his sister carried up into Heaven in the
form of a dove on the occasion of her death, and there have
been a long series of similar happenings occurring down to
this very moment. All that Walter Hylton has laid down
for the discerning of the character of the sensitive vision,
applies likewise to the imaginative vision.
' The Scale of Perfection, Bk. I., pt. i., cap. x.
' ib., Bk. I., pt. i., cap. xi.

VISION— VOICES— REVELATIONS 147
The third form of vision is that called Intellectual, the most
perfect of the three and that in which there is the least
danger of Satanic imitation.
These visions impress the soul more profoundly than either
of the others, and they may remain distinctly visible to her
for long periods of time, for although, when occupied with
other affairs, the soul may not perceive them, yet when she
returns again within herself she perceives them there and
realises that the vision has never really left her. This
permanence, so to speak, belongs to the essential character
of the intellectual vision, by which it is easily distinguishable
from either sensitive or imaginative visions, which are
brief, transitory, and never leave any permanent impression
on the soul.
St. John of the Cross divides the intellectual vision into
two classes, one which he calls corporeal — all material
things in the Universe made visible to the soul by a special
light from God, in the same way as St. Benedict beheld the
whole world in a simple ray of light : and the other which
he names incorporeal — that of angels and spirits and that of
the Divine Essence, which last is granted only to the
Blessed in Heaven, except when it is granted transiently in
this Ufe, by the favour of God and abstraction of spirit, as
befell St. Paul and others, who for a brief while have been
granted, even in this world, a beholding of God altogether
beyond their power to describe.
Just as our eyes behold material things in natural light,
so does the intellect, in supernatural light, given by God,
behold the like things interiorly but in a more
perfect manner (corporeal vision), and such other things
(incorporeal) as God wills the soul to perceive.
When God grants this favour to a soul. He gives to her
that supernatural light, in which, with perfect distinctness,
she beholds whatever He wills, whether things of Heaven
or of earth, and the things thus seen by the soul are so
impressed on her by God that when God enUghtens her
she sees them again as in a mirror, just as she did at the
first showing.
The effects produced on the soul by these visions are a
certain quiet tranquility, an increase of joy, sweetness,
purity, love, and humility, by which the soul is lifted up to

148 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
God and receives such enlightenment as she could never
gain by any effort of her own ; sometimes it may be more
of one virtue, sometimes of another, according to the dis
position of the soul and God's will.
The Devil can imitate these visions, but only in a very
imperfect way. They do not abide in the soul and they
cannot make the permanent impression upon her that the
Divine vision does, rather they are immediately effaced,
unless the soul endeavours to attach herself to them, in
which case they will produce a certain dryness of spirit,
destitute of both love and humUity. Moreover they pro
duce a certain self-satisfaction and self-esteem, coupled
with a tendency to make much of such shewings and an
eager desire to have them.
Visions, even the highest and most perfect of all, are
never to be desired or sought by the soul that will tread
the way of Mystical Contemplation and attain to the perfect
union by her Mystical Marriage with the Bridegroom.
Although true, they may only hinder her advance if she
turns aside to rest in them as something desirable in them
selves; she desires God alone and can be satisfied with
nothing less than Himself. If visions occur, she does not
rest in them, but passes them by, having her interior eye
fixed on her only end, her " oneing" with her Lord.
Voices are intimately connected with visions, just as
sight and hearing have an intimate relation with each other
in the natural order. Words often explain what is seen
and so it is that visions are often explained by voices which
declare the meaning of the vision. Ezekiel would not have
understood the meaning of the valley of dry bones, or Peter
the meaning of the great linen sheet, full of aU manner of
beasts, let down to the earth, unless a voice had explained
these things to them.
These voices, like the visions, are threefold in character
— (i) sensitive, when they strike the natural ear and are
heard like any other sound ; (2) imaginative, when heard
in the imagination, and yet often with such distinctness
that the hearer believes the sound to have been heard with
his ears ; (3) intellectual, when the voice sounds in the in
tellect alone.
In the two first cases there is always danger of delusion,.

VISION— VOICES— REVELATIONS 149
for the voice may proceed from God, the Devil, or our own
mind ; the source of the communications can only be deter
mined by their effect.
The intellectual voice, on the other hand, cannot be
imitated by the Devil in the same way as the others. The
intellectual word, as St. John of the Cross says, falls into
three divisions, that is (i) successive, (2) formal, and (3)
substantial. The first occurs when the soul is absorbed in the con
sideration tof fsome particular subject, and while atten
tively considering the matter which occupies her thoughts,
puts words and reasonings together to such purpose, dis
covering by reflection things unknown before with such
facility and clearness, that it appears to her as if it is not
herself who does this, but some third person, interiorly
speaking to her, reasoning and answering, and informing.
There is indeed good ground for this notion, as the mind
then reasons with itself, much as one man does with
another. Although it is the soul who thus reasons with
herself, yet the Holy Ghost often aids her in the formation
of these words and reasonings, and when the Holy Ghost
so acts within her there is no danger of illusion. But
illusions may and do arise when the intellect works unaided^
for a man may have a true principle, and then reasoning
about it by his own ability alone, easily fall into delusions
and reach false conclusions about it.
Moreover, the Devil, too, is ever on the watch to intrude
his own reflections and mingle them with the merely
natural reasonings of the soul, or even with those inspired
by the Holy Spirit, beginning with that which appears true
and then gradually leading the soul ever farther away from
the truth, till she is finally snared in the darkness of error.
These successive words, therefore, can have their origin
either from God the Holy Ghost, moving and enlightening,
or from the natural light of the intellect ; or again, from the
suggestion of the evil spirit.
The source of these voices may be discerned thus : — (i)
When love is kindled in the soul and she is humbly and
reverently conscious of that love, it is a sign that they are
from the Holy Ghost, who bestows these graces through
love ; and when they are over, the soul is left affectionately

I50 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
disposed towards God and inclined to good, even if at times
the will remains dry. (2) When the voices come from the
natural light of the inteUect alone they wiU leave the
will cold, although not inclined to vanity or evil. (3) When
the voices come from the evil spirit, they dry up the love
of God in the soul and incline her to vanity, self-esteem,
and complacency. At times they produce a certain false
humility together with a fervent affection, which is yet
readily distinguished from the real thing, for the humility
is merely affected, and the fervour has its root in mere
natural feeling, by which it differs totally from the super
natural love which God puts into the soul. When the evil
spirit is the Author, he persuades the soul to a foolish
attachment to these communications, in order to lead her
to give herself up wholly to them, so that she will listen
to no advice from those who would guide her, and thus she
loses any virtue she may possess.
The formal voice is that which the soul clearly under
stands is spoken by a third person quite independently of
her own operations. These voices are heard without any
effort on the part of the soul, when she is not thinking at
all of what is uttered within her. They come sometimes
as complete conceptions, at other times as a single word,
or as if in answer to a question, and occasionally as
successive words in the mode we have already described ;
but whatever the mode, it is entirely independent of the
active participation of the souL
Generally speaking they are only sent to enlighten and
instruct her as to a particular object, and it is not necessary
that they should have any effect other than that for which
they are sent. Whenever they are from God, they effect
their object in the soul, rendering her ready to accomplish
what is commanded, and giving her such clear light that
she understands the meaning of what she hears^ They do
not remove the dislike and dread with which the soul may
regard the work they commanded ; often they increase it.
This is God's work, in order to instruct the soul and to
perfect her in humility. Repugnance arises when some
important office or work is commanded, for if hidden and
humble things are commanded, the soul is ready and eager
to comply. If, however, the voices come from the evil

VISION— VOICES— REVELATIONS 151
spirit, the soul is ready to undertake important works, and
unwilling to embrace those that are humble.
The third or substantial voice, although also formal,
differs from the formal word in this, that the substantial
word always produces its effect immediately on the soul.
This word is like in power to the Lord's, when by a word.
He restored health to the sick and called back the dead to
life. " Ipse dixit et facta sunt." What He says is. This
word spoken in the soul, instantly produces in the soul that
which it expresses. If the Lord says : " Fear not,"
instantly the soul, although before terrified and overcome
with fear, will immediately be filled with courage ; again,
if He says : " Love thou Me," the soul is at once flooded
with love, and perceives in herself the very substance of love.
St. John of the Cross thus describes the attitude the soul
is to assume towards these words : ' ' She is not called upon
to do or attempt anything with regard to these words, but to
be resigned and humble when God thus acts upon her. She
has not to undervalue or fear them, nor to labour in doing
what they enjoin her, for God by His substantial word
works in and by the soul Himself. The soul needs not to
reject these words, for the effect of them remains sub
stantially within her, full of blessing. . . Nor need the
soul fear illusion here, for these words are beyond the
reach of the understanding or the evil spirit ; he can pro
duce no substantial effect in the soul whatever so as to im
press his word upon her, and there is no comparison
between his word and God's.'"
By such voices has God called souls to special missions
in His Church, as in the case of St. Catherine of Siena,
who although a child in years, by His inspiration went to
the Papal Court at Avignon, and spoke the words God
put in her mouth, with such power that although the
majority of the Cardinals, being French, hated the very
thqught of going" to Rome, yet overborne by the fiery
eloquence and authority with which she spoke, they were
constrained against their will and judgment, to assent to
her word and return with the Pope to the Holy City. A
like instance is that of the voices who gave St. Joan of
Arc her extraordinary mission for the deliverance of France.
' The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II,, cap. xxxi., § 3.

152 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
Revelations are the uncovering of something previously
hidden. The fact that there are three Divine Persons sub
sisting in the one Divine Nature of God, is a showing of
truth that was hidden until it was manifested — its uncover
ing was a revelation about God that no human ingenuity or
reasoning could have ever discovered.
The whole revelation, entire and complete, concerning
our salvation, has been given by Jesus Christ, and there
neither is nor can be any other revelation or any other way
of salvation. "There is no other name given under
Heaven whereby men must be saved."
The revelations made through God's Saints add nothing
to the substance of that revelation ; they bring its details
into clearer light, just as the continued study of a noble
picture reveals new depths of unexpected beauty not fully
comprehended at its first beholding. In like manner, the
shewings in successive ages to God's saints, have increased
our appreciation of the depths of the Divine Love and
Wisdom in Jesus Christ, but it is ever the same Christ, the
same Love, the same Wisdom. Thus the revelations to
St. Margaret concerning the Divine Heart of Our Lord tell
lis more of the marvellous love of that Heart for sinners,
and increase our love and devotion to His Divine Person.
The revelations through Juliana of Norwich, St. GertrudCj
St. Hildegarde, St. Angela of Foligno, St. Teresa, and
others tell forth in varpng ways the one love-story of the
Son of God ; they differ utterly and irrevocably from those
false revelations that would preach " another gospel."
The test of St. John applies here: "Every spirit that
confesses Christ has come in the flesh, is of God, and every
spirit that denieth Christ has come in the flesh, is not of
God." No matter how beautiful, how splendid, how magnificent
the revelation, it is contrary to revealed Truth as contained
in the Dogmatic teaching of the Church, it is not of God, and
must be utterly and unhesitatingly rejected. " Professing
themselves to be wise, they became as fools ; " these words
of St. Paul exactly describe the children of this generation,
who, heaping to themselves teachers, having itching ears,
turn from the Truth to follow the wanderings of minds
unbalanced by the vagaries of false revelation, received

VISION— VOICES— REVELATIONS 153
through the medium of automatic or planchette writing,
which they eagerly acclaim as the new gospel, while it is
only the cunning craft of the Devil, by which he seeks to
corrupt the whole world.
The revelations God makes to His saints are some
times of Himself, sometimes of future events, sometimes
of other persons and places, sometimes of work which He
destines them to do. When these revelations are of Him
self, they produce a sweetness and delight which exceed all
else and which no words can describe. These shewings of
His Attributes, His Mercy, His Omnipotence, His Love,
His Goodness, so ravish the soul out of herself into the
ecstatic contemplation of the spirit, that she loses con
sciousness of all else, and if she utters words while in this
state, she realizes their inadequacy to describe what she
experiences ; like St. Paul who, when lifted up into this
knowledge of God, could only say that he " heard secret
words not given to man to utter." This knowledge of
God, so surpassingly wonderful, is a certain contact of the
soul with the Divinity, a foretasting of the glory of the face-
to-face Vision. Such knowledge as this, so sweet and pro
found that it touches the very depths of the soul, cannot be
interfered with by the Devil, for he can feign nothing like
it, because there is nothing comparable with it.
Then again, God sometimes draws aside the veil that
hides the future, and gives the soul a sight of the things
that shall be hereafter. To Abraham was revealed the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorra ; to St. Benedict the
destruction of his Monastery at Monte Cassino. This kind
of revelation really belongs to the spirit of prophecy.
Throughout the ages this unveiling of the future to certain
of God's children has always been going on ; sometimes it
concerns the fate of kingdoms, sometimes of individuals,
and sometimes it concerns themselves, the place, time, and
manner of their death, etc. Again He reveals what is
happening to others elsewhere, as He shewed St. Benedict
the child Placid when he had fallen into the water, and the
death of his sister Scholastica ; and sometimes, even the
thought of the heart is revealed, as was that of the monk
who held the lamp for the Saint.
With the revelation may come the call to sacrifice.

154 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
When God showed to Gemma Galgani the fearful sacrileges
being committed by the chosen ministers of the Sanctuary,
and she fell almost senseless at the showing. He said to
her : ' ' Wilt thou be my victim ? ' ' and her generous heart
answered : "Yes, Lord, take me." She drank of that
chalice of expiation to the full. In like manner is God show
ing souls to-day, drawing aside the veil, giving them a sight
of the state of the world as He sees it, and then asking the
same sacrifice of them that He asked of Gemma.
Time and again in the course of the centuries has the
world been amazed by a most extraordinary phenomenon,
which has been called Stigmatization. The open wounds
of the Saviour in hands and feet and side, even the piercing
of the head to mark the crown of thorns, have been repro
duced in the bodies of certain of God's servants. Blood
has flowed forth of these wounds, sometimes on Fridays
about those hours when the Saviour hung tortured and
bleeding on His Cross, and at other times, more or less
continuously. It has been seen and testified to, by
witnesses so numerous and so reliable, as to exclude all
possible doubt about the fact. True, external phenomena.
such as this have been comparatively rare events in the
passing of the centuries. However, at least one such is
living at the present time, and another, Gemma Galgani,
has only passed from the world in quite recent years, well
within the memory of most of us.
How are we to explain an occurrence so extraordinary
and so miraculous ? St. Francis of Assisi, in the 13th
century, and Gemma Galgani in our own may be taken as
two t)rpical examples, in whom we may study God's extra
ordinary work. Both were penetrated with the most in
tense and abiding devotion to the Passion of the Saviour,
His wounds. His pangs, His sufferings, their daily food ;
the one desire of their life was to be united with Him in His
sufferings, to be conformed to the express image of His like
ness, not in His splendid glory, but in His agony and bitter
pain. As the years of life sped on, the furnace of love
burning within them only burnt the more strongly, till they
seemed to have passed into the Crucified, and the Crucified
to have passed into them. And a wonderful thing happens.
The love and suffering of these souls "oned" with Jesus

VISION— VOICES— REVELATIONS 155,
Crucified, so overflows that the very wounds and marks of
their Crucified Lord appear in their mortal bodies. Here
we seem to find the clue to one of those marvels of God's
power that has most strongly impressed the imagination of
human kind ; certainly no other supernatural manifestation
of an external kind has proved so arresting as this. What
is true in the two cases we have mentioned, appears to be-
true of all other Uke cases so far as they have been
examined ; an altogether extraordinary love of the Crucified,
joined to an equally extraordinary desire to be like Him, to
feel what He felt, and endure in the body what He endured,,
as far as such is possible for a creature. Love explains
aU. We must speak, in passing, of another extraordinary
manifestation called Levitation, which has been seen in
many of Christ's lovers. The body of the one rapt in
prayer has been raised from the ground, and has remained
in the air without any support, the ordinary operation of
the law of gravity apparently suspended, or the body while
in this state of prayer, temporarily gifted with something
of its future glory. However, we are rather concerned
with the fact than with its explanation, and the fact is un
doubted. Such a manifestation can proceed not only from
Divine, but also from Satanic power ; moreover, it has been
produced by modern spiritism.
Many other extraordinary manifestations such as bi-loca-
tion, or the appearance of the same person in two places at
once ; miracles of healing, raising of the dead, casting forth
of evil spirits, and others too numerous to mention,
although they sometimes touch mystical experience, are
only accidental to it, and so I do not deal with them
now. The soul who has been quickened by the love of the
Divine Lover neither desires nor looks for any extraordinary
or unusual manifestations in herself; if her Lover bestows
them, she pays but little heed to them j she has neither will
nor desire for anything else but her union with Him ; she
passes aU the gifts that she may possess the Giver. Her
eternal Marriage with the Bridegroom, her everlasting
" oneing " with Him, this and this alone is the one end
from which she can never be turned aside. Not that she

156 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
undervalues any of His gifts, indeed, they only increase her
humility, for she knows she is utterly unworthy of them,
and if external, they only cover her with confusion and
cause her to reaUse more fully the depth of her own nothing
ness. But she only loves Him the more, and finds her
immeasurable nothingness and inexpressible unworthiness
the ground of her confidence, for He has loved her and
chosen her for Himself, He wills to have her wholly for
Himself, and she wills with most total abandon to give
herself wholly to Him. She lives only for Him ; she
cannot exist without Him.

CHAPTER XVI
HUMAN LOVE AND DIVINE LOVE
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," —
only the beginning, for "perfect love casts out fear," and
love, not fear, is the mightiest power in all the world.
When these two come in conflict, love must win, even in
the natural order, for we see how the fear even of death
is overcome, and one gives his life for another when love
is the impelling motive.
How great is the difference between the obedience of
love and fear; where there is only fear, there is obedience
just as long as the watching eye is there to compel it, but
once that is withdrawn obedience ends ; but where love
rules, there obedience will be rendered in exactly the same
way, whether the one to whom it is given is present or
absent. As it is in the natural order, so is it also in the super
natural ; when a soul has only the fear of God, she may
continue serving Him as long as no strong temptation
comes to shake her constancy, but let the strong attraction
of some human affection arise and the fear of God will be
swept away in the torrent of temptation.
Love is the thing most to be desired of everything in
the world, and most to be feared and dreaded ; all depends
on its nature. If it is supernatural, it is the most precious
of all possessions, seeing we can never attain our end with
out it ; and if it is natural it is most to be feared, for
nothing can entangle and endanger the soul so much.
We look at supernatural love under two aspects — God's
love of us and our love of God. There must be two for
love to operate, because love must find an object on which
to pour itself out. Think in what amazing fashion God's
love has been poured out on us ; He made us out of
nothing, gave us all the wonderful powers of intellect and
will, and destines us for the very face to face beholding of
Himself, nay more, the very possession and transformation
into Himself. How wonderfully is that love manifested in
the way in which He has created us, and so formed our
IS7

158 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
heart to love Him, that it can never find its true love and
rest in any other.
Love is always manifesting, it cannot be hid, it must
shew itself, and so our God Who is Love Itself, is ever
manifesting forth His love for His creatures.
But after all our miserable ingratitude. His Love shines
•out in more wonderfully amazing splendour in the mystery
of the Incarnation, that clothing with flesh, through which
He lifts up our nature to such an intimate relation with
Himself, finally attaining its supreme manifestation in the
Sacrifice of Calvary, where Love shows itself in a way that
passes all conception, for there God commended His Love
towards us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. The wonder of Calvary is this arresting, shewing
forth of the Love of God, not to His friends, but to His
foes. And how full and abundant was that satisfaction !
One drop of that Blood was of price sufficient to ransom
the whole world, but Love knows no measure until it has
given all, and His Love was only satisfied by the shedding
of the very last drop of His Blood for our ransoming. And
so resplendent is the merit of that scarlet tide, that it is
more than sufficient for the ransom of a million worlds
like this, if such had existence and need of redemption.
Think, too, of all the heaped up torment and fearful
darkness and unutterable desolation in which He died. His
Body agonized and tortured in every part, — and a Body
endowed with a sensitiveness to pain beyond an)^hing we
can ever conceive, — and His Soul suffering an anguish in
expressibly more terrible than all the pain of His Body.
All the words of Calvary are words of love and forgive
ness. Love is always giving and He is giving up to the
last. He gave Himself on that Thursday night. He is
giving His Life now, and He gives His Mother because
she is the last gift He has to give. What the giving of
Calvary was like we shall never, never know on earth :
that we shall only know in Heaven.
Then look back on our Hfe that is past, and see how His
Love has followed us from the first moment when we
entered the world until now. Mark how He has bestowed
mercy upon mercy, grace upon grace despite our miserable
misuse of all His gifts, how patient with our waywardness,

HUMAN LOVE AND DIVINE LOVE 159
how tender in our falls, how unforgetting in all our foolish,
blind forgetfulness. What is the story of our life, but one
long story of His giving ? Love must give and Love gives
without measure. What a miserable disappointment we
have been to Him, and yet He has not wearied nor cast us
off. How well we remember His Voice speaking to us
and calling us — ^we know we were not mistaken — and yet
after those most wonderful moments with Him, we have again
and again turned our eyes from His matchless Love, to
fasten them once again on perishing creatures. Shall we
ever begin to love in return?
Love is ever thinking of giving pleasure. If you see
two lovers, how they continue to surprise each other with
some new gift, how they study the likings and fancies of
each other, and even anticipate them in their eager desire
to please.
It is so with our Saviour; He Himself says: "I have
not called you servants but friends, for all things I have
received of My Father I have made known to you." He
loves so much that He will share everything with us, if
only we will let Him. What utter fools we are ! How
often, when He comes to set before us His precious
treasures, we turn away from them to regard some worth
less trifle of time. What a return for His con
descension ! He is our King, our Lord, our Master,
but He is infinitely more. He is our Lover. We are His
soldiers, yes, we are all in the fighting forces of His Army ;
but there is a far closer, more astonishing relationship
than that. He is our Lover. King, yes, but Lover too !
All His riches are ours. We of ourselves have only our
poor miserable poverty, but He enriches us with His un
searchable riches. "All things are yours," so He says to
us, and we possess them all if we are His true lovers.
So far I have only spoken of His Love, since ours seems
hardly worth speaking about, and yet, since in His incon
ceivable condescension He vouchsafes to have it, there is
just a little to be said about it.
Let us see our side. If two people love, they must both
love alike. Love cannot be all on one side : if you see one
•doing all the loving and giving and the other cold and
indifferent, taking everything and giving nothing, you

i6o SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
exclaim, "0 what a fool!" Now our Lord is pouring
forth His great Love on us all the time, and we are either
stupidly insensible to it, or else take it all as a right.
Then again, how often the soul fastens her affections on
His gifts instead of on Himself. It is like a lover being
greeted with, "What have you brought," instead of "I'm
so glad you've come." How often we find that because a
soul has made some little sacrifice, she expects nothing but
consolation, and practically says the Lord is only doing
His duty in giving it. And then, when He takes away
these sensible gifts that He may draw her love from them
to Himself, we hear something like this : " I've left all for
Him and why does He treat me like this ? What in the
world is He about ?"
We value the Lord's gifts, but it is not His gifts but His
Own dear Self we love, or ought to love. Love goes right
forth of all gifts to the giver. There must be love on
both sides. Our love will be poor and imperfect at the
best, but at least we can love with all the powers of our
soul, and then He will come and help our miserable weak
ness and Himself love in us and lead us on until we are
finally joined in one spirit with Him.
How very ready are some with protests of what they
will do, but when the moment comes and you want their
help, they are nowhere to be seen. What promises the
Apostles made, and what a miserable performance !
Love, after all, consists in deeds, not words ; it is what
we are prepared to do for Him, not what we say, that
counts. Love manifests itself in sacrifice, and it is our
readiness to sacrifice ourself for Him that is the test of our
love. When the soul enters into the darkness, when every
sensible and spiritual consolation is withdrawn, when she
perceives nothing, feels nothing and yet holds fast to Him,
then she gives a true manifestation of love. Every day
comes with many small opportunities for sacrifice, and
sometimes with great ones. Souls that really love must
suffer, because suffering and sacrifice are the expression of
love. St. Margaret Mary, when her sufferings ceased,
said she could not live without them, and indeed her sapng
was quickly verified, since her life ended very soon after
her sufferings ceased.

HUMAN LOVE AND DIVINE LOVE i6i
When love is strong in the soul she seeks for nothing
save conformity to the likeness of her Love, she wants ever
to become more and more like Him, and delights in all
those things that seem so extraordinarily contrary to
nature : suffering, darkness and desolation, because they
liken her the more to Him. There are always so many
splendid opportunities of bearing some little trifle, to show
that our love is real. A sharp, bitter or sarcastic remark,
and how often the reply is as good as was given or better ;
but if love is strong, it will be passed unnoticed, perhaps
with a little bit of a struggle, — and then something else
comes. When we are already fully occupied with one
thing and wondering how we shall get through it, someone
comes along most sweetly with more, thinking we should
like something to do ! Scarcely has that one departed
when another brings an hour's work, which of course will
only take a minute. Well, if we love we shall be glad our
Lord has given us the chance to bear a little uncomplain
ingly for Him. They are very small things, after all, but
they will help us to rise up to bigger things later on. Such
small things are coming all day long, wherever we are,
whether in the cloister or in the world, and if we take
them all joyfully for the love of our King, we will show
ourselves true lovers.
When the soul has passed through the privation of all
sensible consolation and spiritual consolation too, and
going beyond herself has in spirit reached her Love, then
she manifests the character of a faithful lover, and He Him
self will be within her, and she will love Him by means of
His own Divine Power, and render Him an adequate
return, because her will has become so elevated into the
Divinity that its every act is Divine. The soul is now a
living flame of love, flowing with unceasing intensity,
for she has come to the embrace of pure Love Itself.
Love is her Hfe, she lives by loving, and just as to the
onlooker the expressions of lovers seem exaggerated and
extravagant, so is it now with the soul. She is so
swallowed up in love, that she can pay heed to none save
Him she loves, since now He has become her very Hfe.
i\ll the terrible sufferings the soul has experienced, all her
tremendous purgations have resulted in this most mar
vellous transformation of herself into the Bridegroom. M

1 62 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
Her whole being has been renewed in the great fire of
this love, so that even the sensitive nature itself shares in
the great transformation. She now loves creatures, but
in a totally different way from that she did before, for the
love she poured out on creatures gave them a place in her
heart that took away from the love she bore to Him, but
now the love that she bears them has its origin in Him,
and she loves no longer in her way, but in His. How
totally different is this loving in Him to that loving with
Him which she showed before. Then her love to creatures
distracted her from Him, now He loves them in her and
she in Him. It was of this love our Lord spoke when He
said to St. Catherine of Siena : "Love of Me and of her
neighbour are one and the same thing, and as far as the
soul loves Me she loves her neighbour also, because love
towards him issues from Me. . When she has dis
covered the advantage of this unitive love in Me, through
which she truly loves herself, extending her desire for the
salvation of all the world, thus coming to the aid of its
neediness, she strives, as she has done good to herself by
the conception of virtue, from which she has drawn the
life of grace, to fix her eye on the needs of her neighbour
in particular."
How utterly imperfect that old love was, for the soul
only loved in a human way. She loved them for the
qualities she found in them, she was drawn by the char
acter of the one and repelled by that of the other ; her love
was narrow, constrained, restricted within the straight
vision of human affection.
Sister Teresa, reflecting on this one day, said :
' ' Before He came into the world and gave that
most inconceivable manifestation of His Love on
the Cross, He could only command us to love our neigh
bour as ourselves, and indeed that seems much when we
reflect how well we do love ourselves, but when He came
He gave His new Commandment — ' Love one another as I
have loved you.' " And as she reflected on this, she said :
' ' Well, He loved the Apostles who certainly were full of
defects, earthly-minded and very imperfect, and yet
despite all their meanness and selfishness. He loved them
to the end and gave His life for them." So she said : " I

HUMAN LOVE AND DIVINE LOVE 163
see I have been loving my Sisters on quite wrong lines,
and henceforth I will love them solely in Him, love them
because He does, never be disconcerted or surprised at any
faults or failings, but surprised and delighted at the
smallest signs of virtue." '
That is exactly what the soul does in this new mode of
loving : her love is wide, broad, all-embracing, like that
of her Lord, and as she not only loves in Him but loves
with His love, her heart is enlarged and strives to encircle
the whole earth in its embrace. She loves with a mar
vellous tenderness and gentleness, is repelled by no defect,
shocked by no sin, however great, disturbed by no failure,
however disappointing, but is ever long-suffering and filled
with supreme pity for those who fall. She despairs of
none, for there is not a soul that is hopeless in her eyes,
she sees in the most abandoned sinner the picture of her
self, had He not lifted her up into His embrace, and so
she is overpassed by the thought of all her unworthiness,
humbled to nothingness, fired with eager desire to lift up
the fallen and draw the sinner into the heart of God. Just
as our Lord is never surprised at our defects and failures,
for He finds us full of them, so the soul is never surprised
or disconcerted, but goes like her Lord with eager haste to
upraise the fallen and set them on their feet again.
In such wise loves the soul in God, her loving is Divine,
because she loves Uke Him. We can neVer be too big and
too wide in the reach of our love ; we must love as He,
and as He excludes none from the reach of His heart,
neither may we.
And we must suffer joyfully, endure the most terrific
interior darkness without giving a sign outside that we are
suffering at all ; one dear child whom our Lord led into
this fearful night showed the most extraordinary courage,
her voice was always raised in song, her face always
smiling, her hands always ready to help and cheer any in
need ; thus all her terrible interior trials remained quite
hidden, and from without there was nothing to show that
a ripple disturbed the placid surface of her soul. That is
what He wants. The saints of God did not look sad when
they were having a bad time. When everything goes
wrong, well, just praise Him, because it is what He wants,
' Histoire d'une Ame, chap ix.

1 64 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
and, above aU, keep smiHng. If our Lord has taken a
fancy to something, we must give it Him with a generous
heart, as a mark and pleasure of our love.
Our love offerings are very small and worthless, yet He
is pleased with them, just as the Mother takes the gift of
some crumpled flower from the hand of the child who
comes with eager step to bring the little offering to her.
So God does not look at the value of our gift, but at the
love that inspires it.
We never apprize a gift by its mere cost value, we do
not say this gift is worth five shillings and that five pounds ;
no, we often cherish the thing most worthless materiaUy,
just because it is the manifestation of the love of the
giver. And what a joy there is in giving ! There is nothing
quite like it in all the world. Our King Himself has said :
"It is more blessed to give that to receive," and do we
not experience the truth of it every day? What joy fills
our heart when we can bring some little love-token to our
King, and if at times we are able to bring the gift of a big
cross, is there not a wonderful, supernatural joy, that
underlies the sacrifice ? I speak to those who love, to
those who have seen and tasted how sweet the Lord is.
Yes, our Hfe would be wanting in one of its most
precious elements if we were denied the joy of suffering
and sacrifice. I know this sounds unintelligible except to
those who love. There is a wonderful incomparable joy
when we bring our poor little gifts and His transforming
hand touches them, and He accepts them from us. There
is love and joy in sacrifice ; you cannot love without it.
The closer the soul draws to the Heart of God the greater
grows her love and pity and compassion for sinners, it is
the soul that has scarcely known a single deliberate venial
sin that opens her heart widest to the biggest sinner.
There is no hardness and censoriousness in sanctity. The
soul loves as her Lord loves. There is no hardness in
her, the hard, unforgiving nature is a stranger to the love
of God, whatever exterior piety may be there. The soul
that loves can forgive any injury, she only pities and com
passionates, and is more sorry for the sinner than for her
self. She is never ' ' down ' ' on anybody. His pity, His

HUMAN LOVE AND DIVINE LOVE 165
compassion, His love are the measure of hers, for He is
in her, and so she forgives gladly and joyfully. The love
of Christ cannot dwell in a heart that is given up to hard
ness. You remember the story of one of the first
Christians on his way to martyrdom. He was met by a
poor apostate imploring forgiveness, but he was hard and
would not speak the word to the poor sinner who, with
streaming eyes, followed to the place of execution. A
fearful thing happened, his resolution to die vanished when
he reached the spot, the poor apostate stepped forward and
took his place, still imploring him to forgive, but no, he
would not, so the crown passed from the one to the other,
because love dies out when the heart refuses pity to a
fellow-sinner. If the Spirit dwells in our heart we shall only feel sorry
and grieved, but never angry and unforgiving. One of the
martyrs going to Tyburn was so flooded with joy and tender
pity, that he embraced his betrayer because of the favour
he had bestowed upon him, in enabling him thus to prove
his love for his Lord ; no word of reproach came, for that
heart was filled with the love of God.
' ' We know that we have passed from death to life
because we love the brethren." Yes, the test of the
presence in our heart of Divine Love is the love we bear
to our fellow citizens in the Light. We love our enemies,
or those who appear to be our enemies, we have no word
for them but love, and above all, we love those who are of
the King's household of the Faith.
We love all, no matter what their weaknesses and
peculiarities may be ; we have our share, too, although
we may not think it, and so we shall have a tender pity
for the weaknesses of others.
You love the little circle of Sisters here, because they
are His friends, all trying to be what He wants them to be,
and therefore a special bond of love and affection binds all
together in Him. How can we love Him and despise His
friends, it is impossible ! No, our love must be big and
generous, kind and forgiving, each loving and trying to
help the other on to a greater and warmer love of Him
Who is the one Love of all.

CHAPTER XVH
THE FRIENDS OF THE BRIDEGROOM
Now we have to say something about the Lord's friends.
When two lovers come together, they quite naturally
come in contact with their friends, they come to know the
relatives, and of course, the Mother. And so it is with
our Lord when we become one of His lovers, He introduces
us to His friends and especially to His Mother.
Just as lovers are received as part of the family, so our
Lord takes us into His family. We are not strangers but
fellow-citizens and fellow-lovers with the saints on high,
and so we are at once at home in the family circle of the
Lord. And of course the Mother comes first, for how
could it be otherwise ; she is nighest His Heart, she stands
out beyond all the others, as the Mother always does. She
is the most wonderful of all His Saints, because the stain
of sin never found place in her, she was filled with His
wonderful grace from the first, and, just because she never
knew sin, she is the only one out of all the Saints whose
glorified body lifted up to partake of the spirit life, is
already in Heaven. And she was very hidden on earth.
How very little, after all, is she er evidence ? There
are just those wonderful moments, when, as a young child,
she breaks forth into the splendid music of her Magnificat ;
she obtains the first miracle by her prayers at Cana, she
does not even ask Him anything, she merely tells Him
what is wanting, and with utter confidence says to the ser
vants : "Whatsoever He says, do." She appears again
at the foot of the Cross, sword-pierced in anguish and tor
ment, only second to that of her Son. We see her waiting
with the Apostles in that upper room for the great out
pouring of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, and then, till she
speeds to Heaven, her life is quite hidden. But once she
had mounted up to the Throne of Light what a tremendous
difference ! Again and again she intervenes in the life of
the Church of God. Her heart beats with sympathy and
i66

THE FRIENDS OF THE BRIDEGROOM 167
pity for all the exUes of earth, and in what wonderful ways
she intervenes to cheer and help. She ever shows a
mother's heart and bears a mother's part in the life of the
Church, from first to last.
See from those first far-off days, all through the ages,
down to the last wondrous manifestations of her love at
Lourdes, her tender care for Sister Teresa, or her com
passion for the young Jew Ratisbonne, how she shows her
self the Mother to all the children of her Son.
The Church is nothing if not supernatural. She is not
surprised or astonished at the way the saints manifest their
interest in her warfare here below, she would rather be
surprised if they did not, she is frankly supernatural,
entirely other worldly. She does not strive for a moment
to minimise the astonishingly miraculous element in her
life, she recognises facts just as she finds them, and does
not try to explain them away. So many seem to think that
this fighting Church on earth is the Church, but it is not
so. By far the most important part of the Church is not
here but up in Heaven, and then there is another part not
quite so great, suffering in Purgatory. In the final triumph
there will be only the Church Victorious, and when that
great procession of all God's elect sweeps in through the
gates, there will be no onlookers for all will be in it.
There is a communion between this world in which
we live, and the mighty spirit world beyond ; angels,
saints and spirits of those departed are Unked in a common
bond of union. And the angels have appeared on earth
and conversed with men throughout the ages, from those
who spake with Abraham to those who have spoken to-day.
They have all those wonderful powers of communication
that I have mentioned. Sometimes they assume a material
body, that they may appeal to our senses, sometimes they
appear in our imagination, and sometimes they communi
cate by spirit impression in our intellect, the highest mani
festation of all.
How wonderfully He has loved us. For each soul He
has appointed a Guardian Angel to help her in her conflict
with the powers of darkness, to warn, to inspire, encourage
and shield her. To many souls the Guardian Angel has
been visible throughout life, to others at frequent intervals

1 68 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
and in very crucial circumstances, as to St. CeciUa, St.
Agnes, St. Francesca Romana and Gemma Galgani, to
name a few.
The Angels are God's messengers, for that is the signi
fication of their name, and they have been carrying God's
messages to His children from of old ; to the children of
Israel, to Joshua, to Tobias, to Our Blessed Lady, to Joan
of Arc, to an unnumbered multitude of Holy Souls in every
time and place.
How close then is this world of spirit, more real than
this world of sense which the average man thinks the sole
reality. There are Angels both good and bad, and both have
equally appeared to men, but the evil Angels only appear
to delude, deceive and drag souls down to hell, while the
good Angels come to lift them up to the glory of Heaven.
The evil Angels come only to destroy and sometimes they
draw very near, they assail the soul with circumsession,
that is, they surround her with temptations on every side ;
then they approach closer still by obsession, getting right
up into the imagination, so that the soul almost perceives
their touch and the cruel impelling force of their tempt-
ings ; but they cannot enter into the citadel of the soul,
unless the city is sold by treason from within. It is only
then that there is incession, when the evil spirit enters and
takes full possession and uses the body and its organs as
his own, so that the soul, thus rendered powerless, dwells
in her body like a prisoner in her cell. Alas ! how many
terrible cases of incession exist to-day, in which the Devil
has usurped the full control of the body. He cannot thus
enter a soul in the grace of God ; however close he
approaches without, he cannot come within. We
remember how the evil spirits spoke to our Lord when
they knew He was about to cast them out : ' ' Hast Thou
come hither to torment us before our time?" And so it
is no wonder the Church uses the solemn office of exorcism
to free, by the power of God's grace, those that are held
captive in the power of the Devil. How easy the way to
this fatal state we see every day ; planchette writing and
other simple things first, then come mediums and spirit
communications, then, once the door is opened, the evil

THE FRIENDS OF THE BRIDEGROOM 169
spirits come through. Easy enough is their admittance,
but how hard it is to eject them and close the door again ;
nothing less than the power of the spirit of God can do
it. But besides the Angels, there is the great throng of the
Saints of God, those who have come through like conflicts
as we, who have dwelt in like bodies, suffered the same
temptations, been nourished by the same Sacraments,
strengthened and confirmed by the same grace, and so
battling, fighting and struggling, have come to the fade
less glory of the heavenly state. They are interested in us ;
how could it be otherwise when they know what the strife
is Hke and the dangers we have to face ? They look down
with love and sympathy and plead for us before the Throne
of our King and our Lover in Heaven. You cannot imagine
St. Paul, with his fiery zeal for souls so flaming within him
that he would be anathema that his brethren might be
saved, indifferent to our struggles now he has received his
crown. Our Blessed Lady leads this glorious host, hers is the
most perfect praise of His glory ever creature has or can
give Him, and after her come all the Saints in due grada
tion, down to those sped but yesterday from the battlefield
of earth to the peace of Heaven.
How wonderfully God is glorified in all His saints even
on earth. What a bold assertion that seemed two thousand
years ago when that young girl in Palestine uttered those
astonishing words about herself : ' ' All generations shall
call me blessed," and yet how exactly through all time have
they been fulfilled. And the Magdalene, snatched Uke a
brand from the burning ; see that wonderful moment, when,
in the house of the poor Pharisee, with all his notions
of propriety terribly shocked, she pours forth the precious
ointment on her Lord and hears His most gracious words :
"Wherever this Gospel is preached, this shall be told for
a memorial of her. ' ' Just two instances ; stainless sanctity
and the woman that was a sinner ; God draws his saints
from the most opposite and unlooked-for quarters.
The saints of God are held in everlasting remembrance,
although in their day they seem of far less consequence
than the kings and emperors who fill the stage of Hfe. Yet

I70 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
it is the saints who are remembered while the great ones
of earth are forgotten.
The saints are working miracles, appearing to this one,
giving some special call to that, giving material health to
one and spiritual health to another. At the m«st unfore
seen times and in the most unexpected places the saints
are at work and the world is surprised ; yet surely it is far
less surprising to find the saints concerned with the affairs
of earth than if they shewed no concern at all ?
One evening in January, 1918, I was going into the line
near Ribecourt. We travelled up in those open trollies
for hours, with a cutting east wind and a drizzle of rain.
We reached Trescourt in a night of inky blackness, so
intense that when hot tea was served out by the roadside,
I had to feel for it in the darkness, although the man hold
ing it was close beside me. I saw it would be very
dangerous going up thus in the darkness, with the relieved
troops and limbers racing down, regardless of anything
and anybody, so I just said to Sister Teresa :* "Look here,
Sister, if I'm to come out of this alive, you will have to be
my eyes to-night." From the moment we started, a light
shone from above my head showing everything for about
a hundred yards in front of us. I could see our boys
moving up and the others coming down and the lie of the
road with perfect clearness. I looked up to see -yvhat it
was, but saw nothing to explain it, but immediately my
head was level the light showed again. This continued all
the way till we reached Ribecourt, then we entered the
communication trench, " Premi Avenue," as it was called,
one of those zig-zag trenches very deep, and yet despite all,
I saw the way quite clearly, and, when the "very lights"
went up, instead of being blinded and unable to see when
they went out, as is always the case, I saw just as if they
had never appeared. And so this light continued till we
entered our dug-out in " Kaiser Trench."
Again, in the big retreat in March, we were, after con
tinuous fighting for many days, resting in Senlis, when the
order came for us to go back and hold the line for twenty-
four hours. I turned to Sister Teresa again and said :
"Look here. Sister, you must take this company in the line
and out again without a casualty." It was a quiet after-
* SceuT Th(5rfeBe of Lisieux.

THE FRIENDS OF THE BRIDEGROOM 171
noon, and as night fell we began forming up in the street, and
then the shells came crashing into the town, tiles and frag
ments of brick and splinters flying in all directions. After
what seemed an age, we got clear of the village and began
moving across the open, but the shells followed us and
drew ever closer and closer. Just as we reached the cross
roads I heard the rush of a 6in. Howitzer descending upon
us ; it seemed minutes, but it could not have been seconds,
when with an awful crash, it struck the road close behind
us. Stone and earth and fragments flew at us, small
pieces rained off our steel helmets, I felt at least half the
company must be knocked out, but no, "we are all right,"
not one had been touched. " The Lord has been good to
us to-night," remarked the young American doctor at my
side, and the old sergeant in front, " Well, that was a near
thing!" We went on, held the line for the twenty-four
hours, and came out again without a casualty.
I must relate one more instance of the little Sister's aid.
It was at Froyennes, just before the Armistice. The
greater part of the village was held by us, but some houses
at the far end were still held by the enemy. Most of the
civiUans had left, except the Dominican Nuns, and they
had been told to go. I went to them directly I reached
the village, and was eagerly welcomed ; they had been
praying aU day for a priest. I found them with their little
bundles all tied up ready to move off when I entered. They
were very loth to leave their home, although they had
already had three shells in it, so I said to Mother Superior :
"Well, Mother, you do not wish to leave?" "No," she
answered. "Well," I said, "look here, stay where you
are, I will place this house under Sister Teresa's protec
tion, and you will not be touched again." I went into the
chapel and gave them Benediction and then, promising to
say Mass in the morning, went to the Trench Mortars
Billet for dinner, where an English family was living who
had dwelt there all through the war. Towards the end of
dinner a very heavy artillery bombardment began, machine
gun bullets began singing over the house and for nearly
an hour the storm of shot and shell raged on. I could not
help thinking the poor Sisters would not think much of
Sister Teresa's protection. When things quietened down

172 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
a little, keeping under cover of the wall, I made my way
back to our billet, where all the windows had been blown
in by a shell. Early next morning I went to the Convent,
and although shells had fallen all round, not one had
touched it. A fairly heavy fire accompanied the Mass, and
I had to wait some time before being able to leave the
Convent. This continued for several days until the enemy
guns were in action for the last time, but although the
shelling on that occasion was very severe, the Convent was
never touched.
These are only three instances out of a multitude in my
own experience and that of others, just to show you that
the friends of God are working and helping now, just as
they have done in the days that are past.
The Saints reigning in Heaven hear our petitions and
hasten to our help, and are ever ready to satisfy our some
times, as I think, unreasonable demands. So you see the
company of His friends and lovers into which our loving
Lord has introduced us. The Saints are not less, but ten
thousand times more interested in the affairs of time than
when they were on earth.
Then we are linked again with those other friends of
His, waiting the completion of their purgation in Purga
tory. They are like the Saints and not like them ; like
them, in that their salvation is assured, but unlike them,
in that their glory is delayed. UnUke again, because they
need our prayers, which the Saints do not, and we can help
them by our prayers, and God sometimes suffers them to
come back to earth to ask of us the aid they need, by means
of sensitive visions or by those other ways of which I have
already spoken.
It is the way of lovers to share their friends, and so He
deals with us. Strange that some outside the Church
think His friends take away our love from Him, that, in
fact, they get in the way. How different is the reality.
Why if you live in the world, a friendjof your lover is
always welcome, you feel they are almost a part of himself ;
when they drop in you do not greet them with, " Get out,
you come between myself and my lover." Of course not.
Naturally, out of a circle of friends, some take more
interest in us than others, and so it is with the Lord's

THE FRIENDS OF THE BRIDEGROOM 173
friends. Friendship springs up between earth and heaven,
and people say: "Oh, the Saints have their favourites."
I don't try to explain it, but it is quite true, there does
exist between certain souls in this world and Saints in the
next a quite familiar intimacy. After all the supernatural
world does not contradict the natural.
Well, there is the great Bride of Christ in her triple
frame, ever growing to the fulness of the stature of Christ,
ever advancing to that great day, the Marriage of
the Bridegroom with the Bride, which will herald in
the glorious never-ending day of Eternity, where we shall
everlastingly serve our King and Lover, ever filled, yet
never satiated, with the torrent of His Exhaustless Love.

CHAPTER XVni
TEMPTATION FROM THE WORLD, THE FLESH,
AND THE DEVIL .
In warfare it is supremely important to take account of
the strength and possible dispositions of the enemy, and the
General who made his plans, only taking into account the
strength of his own forces, and neglecting those of his foe,
would be acting very foolishly and courting disaster.
As that is true in the natural order, so is it true in the
supernatural, where ' ' our warfare is not with flesh and
blood, but against principalities and powers and the spirits
of wickedness in high places," so that while we have God
and His grace on the one hand, we have also the Devil and
his temptations on the other, and we have to remember that
the Devil is as real as Almighty God is real.
Our way would be astonishingly easy but for the Devil.
We have followed the soul in her ascent to God, and
while we have shown all the supernatural graces God be
stows, we have hinted, too, at a little of the dangers of the
way. We have now to consider her spiritual foes, their
dispositions and places of attack, for if these are well
studied, she will be the better prepared for the conflict.
We have enlisted, not for three years, but for duration, and
the duration of the war in which we are engaged is for all
our life, the conflict will only cease with our last breath.
There may be times when we are like the troops in France,
out in rest, but we shall be back in the Une again, as they
were. There will be intervals of quiet, when the Devil is
very silent, and you almost think he has retired, until he
opens fire again just when you are least expecting it.
Now our ghostly enemy has three lines of attack ; first
through the world, next through our own flesh, and finally
through himself, and, for the most souls, he finds the two
first lines amply sufficient to attain his purpose, without the
trouble of appeal-ing in person. »74

TEMPTATION 175
His first attack comes through the world, not the beauti
ful world of nature, the land, sea, and sky, but the world
of this darkness, the world-spirit that would fasten the eyes
of the soul entirely on the passing things of sense and turn
them away from God to seek her satisfaction in them. That
is the world that St. John says Ueth in the arms of the
wicked one. And the world-spirit is the very antithesis of
the spirit of Christ. He says : " Blessed are the poor."
The world says : "Blessed are the rich," and it can see
nothing in poverty save something to be evaded at any cost.
Again : " Blessed are the meek and humble of heart."
The world says : " By no means, blessed are the powerful
and successful, push your own claims to attention and
notice, for no one else is going to do it for you." The
world only looks on the humble man as a pitiful fool, who
has not got sense enough to fight and struggle for his own.
' ' Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteous
ness." The only righteousness the world has room for is
success, be successful and you must be righteous, be a failure
and you must be wrong, a successful rebel is a patriot, an
unsuccessful one a traitor.
" Blessed are the pure in heart." The world has not
even a conception of such a possibility, it says " Satisfy
your natural desires to the full, provided you do not make a
public scandal about it, ' ' for the world will ask no awkward
questions as to how you gained your wealth or what yotfr
morals are, provided you conform to its standard. As for
supernatural things, the world has no use for them, and
indeed understands as little of the language of the kingdom
of heaven as most of the men who went to France did of
French. But the world is very real, very evident, very tangible,
the very atmosphere throbs with its arrogant assertive
power. True its spirit was a little subdued during the war,
but the guns were scarcely silent ere it arose more over
bearing, more aggressive than before. The world offers
something real and tangible here and now, it offers to satisfy
to the fuU the sensitive side of man, and as to his soul, that
can very weU wait. " Young man rejoice in your youth.
Drink the cup of pleasure that is pressed into your hands.
Enjoy life, satisfy your nature, make sure of this world, and

176 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
let the other take its chance." The passion for pleasure
was never so strong as to-day. People want a new theatre,
a new dance, a new game every night. Why in the old
days you went up to a theatre once in six months as a great
event, to which for three months you looked forward and on
which, during the other three, you looked back. But now
you see boys and girls bored by going night after night to
this place and that, and deriving little satisfaction from it
aU. The spirit of the world is that which is so fastened on
material things and the satisfaction of the senses, that it
pays no heed to God and the things of eternity. This world-
spirit creeps in everywhere. It finds its home even in the
Church, for it is quite willing to pay its respects to religion
in a way, but it must be a religion that will not offend any
one, with just a polite acknowledgment of Almighty God,
such as you would give to a distant acquaintance in the
street. And the world-spirit finds its way even into the cloister,
for non-possession does not necessarily mean poverty, nor
possession riches. You can find the unworldly spirit in the
jewelled palace, and the world-spirit in the cottage. The
spirit of pride can push its way even through three grilles,
if you have them, for there has been no enclosure yet de
vised that can quite keep it out. It is quite true that in
the cloister the mere material delights of the world are
wanting, but the spirit of the world can enter there, and
when you meet a proud religious — and there are such — you
know it is there. Bossuet said of the Port Royalists that
he found them pure as angels and proud as devils, and there
lay the reason of their fall. Why was it that at the
Reformation so many religious houses fell with such
astonishing ease and that so few stood forth to stem the
flood ? Not because they were sinks of iniquity, as some
pretend, but because the world-spirit had got in, and in
many cases they were only collections of eminently
respectable people, engaged in literary and scientific pur
suits. They had lost their supernatural side, it had become
gradually sapped and enfeebled, until they had descended
to the purely natural level, so that when it became a question
of being hung up by the neck on the gallows, cut down,

TEMPTATION 177
ripped open and the heart torn out, they were not able to
rise up to the height such sacrifice demanded, and they
took a pension instead.
The Devil cares not a straw how he gains his end, so that
he gains it ; he has no objection to a reUgious community if
it is infected by a worldly spirit, for in that case it is rather
'an ally than a foe. And strange though it may seem, even
the soul that is advancing along supernatural ways, feels
the intense pull of this world-spirit at times. It appears
in such attractive guise, so big in its sweep, so very real,
and there are moments when the world of spirits seems so
far off and so unreal, in the presence of this great world-
spirit with its voice ever insistent on the now. Why re
nounce everything ? Why refuse to satisfy the nature God
has given you ? Why not take all the pleasure and joy of
life while you may? Why sacrifice a present good for a
future all unknown ? The glory and glitter of this poor world,
how real in such moments they seem ! And yet the world
says nothing of the broken wrecks that it casts up on the
shore, the lives shattered, the eyes dulled, and senses
blurred, and even reason broken in the rush for that which
seems so delightful for the moment, but the end whereof is
death. Sometimes we feel a shock when we see the fall of one
who seemed as a star in the firmament of the Church, but
that is because the processes that produced the fall have
been unseen, the world-spirit has gradually sapped away
all the supernatural life until there was nothing left, and
then the spiritual house fell, and great was the fall
of it.
No wonder then that our Blessed Lord warns us to watch
and pray lest we enter into temptation, and so watch that
the prince of this world may find nothing in us.
We have to keep out the world-spirit, and see that it
finds no admittance within the cloister of our hearts. We
are supernatural and other worldly, or the most ghastly
failure out.
It may seem strange to speak of a world-spirit in religion,
and yet again and again it does get in, the worldly way of
looking at and judging men and things, the spirit of pride
which sometimes asserts itself in most surprising ways. N

178 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
You sometimes meet with religious who seem determined
to impress upon you that their Community is "IT," with
capital letters, in the social and worldly sense of the word.
The great congregation of St. Maur, in France, found the
fame of its learning a snare, for study and literature became
so aU important that numbers of monks were dispensed
from Choir Office that their literary labours might not be
interrupted. What an instance of the accidental supplant
ing the essential !
Then the next line of attack is through our own flesh,
which we know is very weak, the unhappy legacy of original
sin. And our health. How many a vocation has been wrecked
by needless fretting and fussing about this wretched house
of clay, that in a few years wUll be rotting in the grave.
There is no way in which the Devil is so successful as this.
He can persuade people they have every conceivable
malady, when there is nothing whatever the matter with
them, and, of all maladies, the one that has no existence
in fact is the hardest to cure. After all, if a religious breaks
her leg or head, there is a definite cure to be accompUshed,
but once these imaginary sicknesses enter, there is no hope
of a remedy.
I knew a priest doing excellent work who became
obsessed with this idea of his health. At one place the
air was too strong, at another not strong enough ; one place
was too relaxing, another not relaxing enough ; and so he
journeys and I suppose will so continue to do until the end,
and all the excellent work he might do is left undone. But
you never can tell, until you are put to it, what this frail
body of ours can bear. The trenches were a wonderful cure
for most things, and a No. 9 cured anything from a broken
leg to a headache. They did not talk of the simple life,
but lived it. The food was often rough and well seasoned
with mud, but nobody died on that account. Most of the
people languishing in the Spas would be perfectly cured by
a month in the trenches, especially with a good shower of
shells to strengthen their nerves.
It is wonderful what concern the Devil shows for our
health. "This life is far too severe for you, the hours too
long, the strain too great, fhe penances too hard ; you must

TEMPTATION 179
be careful, it is not right to injure the body God has given
you " — and the DevU's best advocates are good people who
echo his words.
While he is full of concern for our body, how fearfully
little he shows for our souls. How rarely you hear anyone
say : "You must not injure your soul." The best cure for
all this is hard work, and then you will be so occupied you
will not have time to think of your ills : " If one will not
labour neither shall he eat," is the excellent advice of the
great Apostle.
Early morning is a favourite time with the Devil. You
really are too exhausted to get up, you will be fit for nothing
all day, a little more slumber, a little more sleep.
It is surprising, too, in religion, how quite secondary
things, that in the world had no attraction, seem to have a
tremendous power; as one said to me : "Why, in the
world, I never troubled or gave a thought to food, and now
it's always coming on." So we must watch the way against
the flesh, stop the eyes from roving, and ears from listen
ing, mortify our sense of taste and touch and smell.
There is a third way in which the enemy comes, when it
is a case of conflict of spirit against spirit, and he comes to
the attack with all his own cruel malignity.
These temptations are altogether unlike any other. They
strike the soul with the stunning effect of a blow ; or it is a
cruel compelling voice, harsh, metallic, Satanic, that seems
to speak in the very soul. A soul once, under this attack,
rushed from the house into the open-air in a vain desire to
escape its horrid persistency. Another was so overcome
with horror as to be unable to speak or coherently relate
what had happened.
There are moments when the soul seems absolutely will-
less amidst the fierce onset of temptation, or sometimes it is
a series of blows, as if endeavouring to battle down the
soul's defence by force, like a barrage of artillery striving
to level a village. So the Devil seems all around and close
up to the soul, right into the imagination where he presents
his temptations with such awful vividness as almost to de
prive the soul of her senses.
Sometimes it is directly at Faith that he levels aU his
powers. All the real things, that we thought it impossible

I So SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
we ever could doubt at all, seem to be as though they were
not ; the experience of our soul, in which we know we have
seen the things of the spirit, seem to fade as a dream, and
we wonder if it really happened at all. All the future to
which we look seems an empty void, and the Devil with
his mocking voice says that it is all a fancy, all a delusion of
our own imagination. In a storm like this, the last thing
in the world is to reason, the only answer of the soul is :
" I believe all God has revealed and all His Church
teaches," only so can the Devil be put to flight.
Or he assails the soul with horrible temptations against
chastity, painted in the imagination with terrifying vivid
ness, so fearful, so persistent, that the soul is pierced with
unutterable terror, fearing she has consented to the hateful
visions presented to her. I have known souls to fall sense
less in the cruel onslaught of temptations to sin that they
loathed with all the strength of their being. But unless
the temptation was tremendously vivid and overmastering,
it would be really no temptation at all.
The Devil is ever changing his tactics. At one time he
tries to bear everything down by the might of one terrific
onslaught, at another it is by slow, continuous, persevering
battering that he strives to break his way through. And
the more advanced the soul in the mystical way, the more
intensely spirit-like are these attacks, because it is not now
a conflict of world or flesh against spirit, but of our spirit
against his. The soul in these fearful visitations experiences
the horror of a darkness that may be felt, a fear it cannot
express, that seems to paralyse all its powers.
Then he comes with other temptations, less gross than
these, but more subtle, by which he tries to persuade the
soul to pride in the graces she has received, to think she is
really of great consequence, and to give to herself the
glory that belongs to God alone. " If thou hast received, why
glory as if thou hast not received," says St. Paul, and that
is the way every temptation to spiritual pride must be met.
Then again he will try to persuade a soul that she is not
understood, not appreciated, or that she should be in a
stricter way of life, practice great austerities ; and she may
be led far by the evil spirit, unless very watchful against
his devices, before she perceives it, for he comes both as an

TEMPTATION i8i
angel of light as well as a roaring lion, and indeed he is less
to be feared in the last case than in the first.
Again he will endeavour to make her very critical and
censorious of the doihgs of others, harsh and condemnatory,
domineering and overbearing, so that all her sweetness and
gentleness disappear from her own soul, and the souls of
others are wounded and injured to an extent of which, in
the bUndness he has cast over her, she has no conception.
What terrible falls we sometimes see, those who have
been nourished with the Bread of Life, feeding their un
happy souls with the husks of swine. Ho-w did it happen ?
It seems so unthinkable, yet so it is ; it is true, and it is
true because that soul was undermined by pride and secret
craft of the Devil long before the crash came. There is no
virtue the Devil hates so much as humility, because he
knows that if he can destroy this, everything else is possible.
A soul that really knows herself will never be harsh or
censorious in her judgment of others, for she knows only
too well what she would be but for His helping grace.
It is just because earth is a battlefield on which grace
and temptation are contending for the mastery, that we see
such amazing contradictions in the same person ; sometimes
grace has the best of it, and at other times temptation has
the best of it.
The world is made up of people who vary in every
possible way, from those souls on the extreme right, who,
having attained union with God, scarcely if ever so much
as vary a hair's breadth from His will, to those on the ex
treme left, who are so possessed by the Devil that they
scarcely ever vary from his, and between these two ex
tremes they shade off to the centre, where grace and tempta
tion seem equally matched in the contest. There is the
solution of those amazing contrasts in the same soul,
absorbed in prayer one day and the next letting out a
torrent of blasphemy. "What a hypocrite," you say. No,
it is not that ; it is simply that at one time God and His
grace are in possession, and at the other the Devil and his
temptations. I saw a review of a book on Mystical
Theology the other day which said : ' ' The best part about
it is that there is nothing about the Devil in it." Well, it
seems to me that it was the worst part about it, for a

i82 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
General is only a fool who refuses to prepare for his foe.
We must take account of the enemy of our salvation, or we
shall fare badly. St. Paul, rapt up into the third heaven
where he heard things not lawful for man to utter, when
he came to earth again was assailed with a most horrible
and malignant temptation of which he says : ' ' Thrice I be
sought the Lord that it might depart from me," our Lord
did not free him from it, but gave grace to overcome it.
Yet in the fierce horror of these struggles he cries out
"Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death?"
I remember once impressing on a dear child the reality
of the Devil, when she exclaimed : " O, Father, I know
he's real right enough, I haven't the least doubt about
that." She knew what temptation was.
Our Lord says "Pray, but also watch." The troops in
the Une had to listen to catch any sound of enemy move
ments, so also must we. Our nature is weak, the Devil is
strong, only grace can help us to come through ; so never
give way to over-confidence. A temptation may leave you
for years and you may feel it may never return, or that if it
does, it will be no temptation at all, and yet after long
intervals it comes back with tenfold greater strength than
before. We can never get rid of temptation because we
can never get rid of the Devil, but we can overcome by the
help of that grace that will never be wanting. Remember
the words of our Lord and Lover : ' ' What I say unto one
I say unto all — watch."

CHAPTER XIX
MYSTICAL SUBSTITUTION
Of all the extraordinary mysteries of the supernatural
life, none is quite so extraordinary and quite so mysterious
as that Mystical Substitution by which God calls some souls
to share with Him in His great work of Redemption.
What erroneous notions people form of God ! How often
they conceive of Him as one who rather terrifies by His
anger than heals by His mercy, as if He was ever ready to
come down on our faults and failings, and pay no heed to
our strivings and endeavours to serve Him ! He is not in
the least like that, and we might so easily know it from
ourselves, for should we be "down" on anyone who had
been doing his best for us, and yet had sadly muddled the
whole affair?
As the soul comes to be better acquainted with Him, and
from a stranger becomes one of His intimate lovers. He
takes her up into the secrets of His Divine heart and shares
them with her. He always takes the first step in this
Divine intimacy, for we should be too fearful of our miser
able nothingness to dare attempt it. "You have not chosen
Me, but I have chosen you."
With this drawing of the soul to His heart. He begins to
unfold the joys and the sorrows of that Heart of His that
loves with such incomprehensible pity and tenderness, and
this unfolding is reserved for His intimate friends, just as
the secrets of precious things are reserved by lovers for each
other and not spoken of to others.
In His wonderful way. He calls some souls to have share
with Him in the sorrows of His Divine heart, and lifts them
up in a mysterious manner to a participation with Himself
in His work of Redemption ; they are made co-workers
together with Him in a way that is only conceivable when
we are mindful of that extraordinary union with Himself by
183

1 84 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
which He both works and suffers in them. That is the
favour He reserves for His intimate lovers.
St. Paul, with extraordinary boldness, has declared for all
time the doctrine concerning this most amazing union of
the soul with her Saviour in His Divine work of Redemp
tion. "I fill up in my own body what is wanting in the
Passion of Christ ' ' — not for a moment that an)thing can
be wanting in the abundance of its infinite satisfaction, see
ing that a single drop of His Blood was abundantly
sufficient to lake away the sin of all the world, but that, in
a mysterious and wonderful way the members of His
mystical body should suffer with the Head. Hence He calls
for Victims in whom He, the Divine Victim, may suffer, for
unless He suffered in them, all their sufferings would be
nothing worth.
To understand this we must look at the Saviour's redemp
tive work. He was substituted for us and suffered death
in our stead : " The chastisement of our peace was upon
Him, and by His stripes we are healed." In His Own
Divine Self He there endured the penalty of every sin that
has or shall be committed, as long as time shall be. He
who knew no sin was made sin for us, and expiated in His
own Body on the tree all the guilt of all the world.
And He wills to associate some souls in a mysterious way
in this work. We can only in part explain it by the fact
that the Sacrifice of Calvary is one Eternal Act, and that,
just as in the Blessed Sacrament it is the self-same Lord
and the self-same sacrifice, not another, so when He suffers
in His Victims, it is not a new sacrifice, not a new expia
tion, but the same expiation of Calvary, only seemingly new,
owing to our vision being limited by the boundary of time.
At) intervals in the life of the Church His Bride He has
called and chosen certain souls to be His Victims of ex
piation, in whom He wills to be glorified by conforming them
to the express image of His likeness in the way of Mystical
Substitution. St. Catherine of Siena is a case in point, and indeed the
sufferings she endured, when she offered herself a Victim in
that awful crisis through which the Church was passing, seem
so extraordinary and so inconceivable, that it is only when
"we realize that il was indeed her Lord suffering in her that

MYSTICAL SUBSTITUTION 185
we can understand the mystery a little. In one of her last
letters to Raymond of Capua, after narrating her sufferings,
she concludes : "In this way and many others which
I cannot tell, my life is consumed and shed for this
dear Bride ; I by this road, and the glorious martyrs with
blood. . . this time I am to confirm them with a new
martyrdom in the sweetness of my soul — that is for His
Holy Church ; then perhaps He will make me rise again
with Him. He will so put an end to my miseries and niy
crucified desires."
Now you will say, how far can you go in the way
of Mystical Substitution ? Is there any limit beyond which
we may not pass, in this strange mysterious way of sub
stituted suffering? Well, for the salvation of a soul we
may offer our bodily life in exchange for the spiritual life of
the one for whom we offer ourselves, and the same is true
of more than one. We can offer the years of our life, the
agonies and the pains He may lay upon us to obtain the
redemption of souls. That is the full limit to which we can
go. Our King Himself has set the Umit: "Greater love
hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his
friend." So, in an altogether incomprehensible way, by corporal
death spiritual life is bestowed, as St. Paul says : " So death
worketh in us, but life in you," that is, by our bodily death
spiritual life is given to you.
There is a lesser way, in which we can be substituted for
another, by taking on ourselves the temptations that should
fall upon them, with this exception, that if the temptations
are of like nature to those to which we are already subject, it
is not lawful in any case to do so, owing to the danger to
ourselves and also because it is not His will that we should
do so. Moreover, as this life of substitution is one that in
any case must be attended with the most terrific sufferings
and extraordinary dangers, no soul should embrace such a
"work without the clearest and most manifest call of the
Saviour for her to do so, in no case without the approval of
her spiritual director, and, in the case of religious, without
the permission of their Superiors.
The ever-growing call of the Lord to this Victim-life in
these last days may indicate that the Mystical Crucifixion

1 86 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
of the Bride is drawing nigh, and that in consequence the
number of those whom He would conform to Himself in His
suffering life must increase.
Amongst these there is one in whom we may study this
Victim-life very clearly. Gemma Galgani of Lucca, for there
we see a soul called from earliest childhood to this way of
Mystical Substitution. See her giving so many years of her
life for the salvation of this soul, and so many for that ; her
whole being was consumed by a burning thirst for the salva
tion of souls. Her Lord's interests. His Divine work so
filled and absorbed her, that her mind never turned to ought
else, so that when He called her for the final and most
mysterious substituting act of her life. He found her ready.
He appeared to her and revealed the awful horror that had
invaded the very Sanctuary ; her whole soul quivered and
shook with terror and trembling, as all the fearful con
sequences of what He asked became known to her, but her
brave soul triumphed over human weakness : " Yes,
Lord," she cried, "take me for Your Victim." And
henceforth, for the remaining two and a half years of her
life, she was indeed a victim to the full. All the anguish
and agony of her Saviour's Passion was reproduced in her,
she was tormented in body, tormented in soul, drank the
chalice of dereliction and tasted all the bitterness of the
great abandonment of the Cross. Shrouded in awful dark
ness like her Lord, she was left to tread the wine press
alone, forlorn, and in unutterable desolation, yet clinging
to the Lord, her Lover to the last. Her director in Rome
would have hastened to her side, indeed the telegram had
been prepared, but she would not ask for that consolation,
she would seek no alleviation, but die like her Lord. The
last moment came; supported by the two girls who had
been with her through her agony, Uke her Lord on the Cross,
she inclined her head and, uttering the words :" Jesus, I
can do no more," finished her Victim-life on earth.
What a tremendous mystery is here, this participation
in the chalice of the Lord ! He does not compel us to be
Victims, no, He calls us to be Victims. "Can you drink
of the chalice that I shall drink of ? " is the question He
puts to those whom He thus favours by His call, and if the
soul answer: "Yes, Lord," He responds: "You shall

MYSTICAL SUBSTITUTION 187
indeed drink of the chaUce that I shall' drink of," for that
chalice was the torment of the Cross.
So like to Himself does He fashion His Victim-brides,
that even the wound marks are sometimes impressed on the:
mortal body through the overflow of anguish that fills the
soul, for she is so penetrated with His Passion, that His.
agony and wounds have passed, as it were, into her very-
self, or rather she has passed into Him.
And so He is calling for victims who will hold nothing
back, who are ready to go all the way with Him, along the
dark and desolate pathway that leads to crucifixion.
At first sight there is something terrifying in the very
thought. Flesh and blood shrink back appalled at the pros
pect, for it seems so utterly impossible ; and so in truth it is
for nature, unless upheld by Divine power, unless He Him
self within uphold the soul in her anguish.
There are pangs of agony and sorrow in our heart some
times that we can only share with one who is very intimate,
and so to say, the counterpart of ourself, and such a one
enters into the agony of our heart and indeed suffers with
us, for the pain that pierces the one afflicts the other. Thus;
it is with those souls to whom the Saviour opens in full
measure the mystery of Calvary ; that mystery is repro
duced in them.
The agony of soul in the passive purgation of spirit, tre
mendous though it be, cannot be compared with the agony
in this drinking of the chaUce of Calvary. The soul may
shrink back as the Soul of the Saviour in the Garden and
cry " If it be possible let this chalice pass from me : " but
she must likewise say with Him : ' ' Not my will but Thine
be done." The will of God is the summing up of every
thing. This agony is noi for all ; this amazing, mysterious;
entering into the agony of the Cross is for those of whom
the Saviour said : " He that is able to receive it, let him-
receive it."
How bitter is the drinking of this chalice ! Yet it is;
Love Divine that offers it to our lips. He calls, and He
calls because He loves with a special love, and this call is
the mark and seal of that special love by which He wills so>
to liken us to Himself. St. Paul is ever insisting on this
great mystery, ever tracing this death that brings life ; ho-w

i88 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
strange it is that life only springs from death. Suffering
and glory, life and death, so the Apostle is ever contrasting
the two and drawing out the features of our mystical
immolation, our mystical crucifixion with our King.
Love is the sum of it all, the soul that is chosen for this
work becomes like her Lord and Lover, a burning flame of
fire for the salvation of souls, His interests have become
hers, the souls He loves she loves, the souls He agonizes for
so also does she, or rather He comes and burns and agonizes
and suffers in her, in this wonderful, inexpressible way, as
the form of Consecration of the Victims lately approved by
the Church expresses it : "Come Lord, and suffer Thyself
in me." ' The one interest of Our Lord is the salvation of
the human race, and so the Victim-soul is so penetrated
with this same desire, that if it were possible, and she
possessed a life for each soul, she would lay down each one
to obtain their salvation, so intensely burns the Divine fire
Tvithin her. She is consumed with a burning thirst for
souls that can never be quenched until her Victim-life is
finished, and, like her Lord, she dies in anguish unutterable
and desolation inconceivable on the Cross.
This is that supreme forming to the image of the Saviour
in His suffering which He wills to bestow on those whom
He calls. " If we have been planted in the likeness of His
death, we shall also be planted in the likeness of His resur
rection." This is the sign of His greatest favour, for what can He
grant a soul greater than to be thus likened to Himself and
to share with Him in the most Divine work, the redemption
of souls ? ' ' Except the grain of wheat fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone, but if it die it shall bring forth
much fruit. ' ' These grains of wheat are the Victim-souls
Tvho, by dying, bring forth much fruit, for they are the souls
in whom the Divine Victim, in such marvellous ways, mani
fests the agony of His Passion, and through whom He gives
life to those who are perishing. The work is all His, He
living and agonizing and suffering in them, for without Him
their suffering could profit nothing, but to Victim-souls, one
with the Supreme Victim, living His life as the branch lives
"by the vine, all things are possible.
* Associazione delle Vittime per la Santa Chiesa. See Appendix at end.

MYSTICAL SUBSTITUTION xSg,
And of course they are the special object of the Devil's
hate, and he comes with all his malignant spite to afflict
them in their agony, and to spoil the completeness of their
sacrifice, indeed, to stay their embracing it at all. All the
night before her consecration, one soul was tormented by
the Devil, bringing every reason he could against the act,
assailing her, so that long after she said with a shudder of
intense horror : " How can I ever forget that night, it
seemed the devil would never leave me."
But the Victim is also the Bride. In a very special way
the Lord is her Lover and His choice of her for the Victim-
state is the most precious pledge of His Love, the black
dereliction which she suffers the proof of it and of His
acceptance of her offering. She drinks the chalice of the
agony of the great forsakening, cries with her Lord in that
awful abandonment: "My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken me?" and she seems forsaken, and indeed feels
she must be forsaken for ever, and that from the darkness
of earth she must pass to a greater darkness still, since,
unless she experienced this, how could she drink the chalice
that He drank of, and how co-operate and become a worker
together with Him in the Redemption of the world ?
Such is the way of Mystical Substitution, by which souls
are formed to the likeness of their Saviour in this most sub
lime and wonderful manner, and if they are thus conformed
to the image of His agony on earth, they will likewise be
conformed to the likeness of His glory in heaven.

CHAPTER XX
THE RELIGIOUS STATE
When the young man in the Gospel came to our Lord
with the question : "What good thing shaU I do that I
may obtain eternal life ? ' ' our Lord turned to him and said :
''If thou wilt enter into Hfe keep the commandments."
And the young man repUed : "All these I have kept from,
my youth up, what lack I yet?" And our Lord, beholding
him, loved him, for He saw the young man possessed great
qualities, and He met him with the words : "If thou wilt
be perfect, sell all thou hast and come, follow Me,
.and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven." The young man
turned sorrowfully away, because he had great possessions.
As it was thus long ago, so it is now. Many look at
the religious state, admire it, long for the peace of it,
•desire the beauty of it, but they go away, for they cannot
make the sacrifice. The religious life implies a very
¦complete sacrifice and demands a very complete renuncia
tion. That life is summed up in the three-fold Vows —
Poverty, by which we renounce all things external to our
self ; Chastity, by which we renounce the power we have
over our own body ; and Obedience, by which we renounce
our own wills, and hence renounce ourselves. We have
only to look at the effects of these three Vows to under
stand how utter and how complete is the renunciation
which the religious life exacts. Moreover, it is a per
manent renunciation, not for five or six or ten years, but
for life. When we become the regular soldiers of the
king, it is to fight in his army till death.
Again, the religious life is a common life, that is, a life
lived together, and that means a great grace, for the
•common life rubs all the awkward corners off people, and
prevents the development of eccentricity. Generals in the
Army often become eccentric, for there is no one to pull
Tup a General. The young officers soon get cured of any
190

THE RELIGIOUS STATE 191
tendency to eccentricity, because they all live in common ;
there is a great safety in the common life.
Now we do not enter religion to please ourselves and
have our own way : that is the very last thing we come
for. The religious life is the consecration of our whole
being to the service of our King and Lover. The Vows
we make are made to Him, and by them we promise to
be true to Him till death. The religious life is super
natural or it is nothing ; there is no mean, you cannot be
half natural and half supernatural. The religious ig
¦either the most splendid success or the most unutterable
failure, and which it is to be will depend on whether the
soul proves true or false to the supernatural state to which
she is called. I can conceive nothing more intolerable
than a religious leading a merely natural life.
The religious state falls into two main divisions ; the
¦cloistered or contemplative Orders, and the uncloistered or
active Orders. The world has little understanding of and
less patience with the religious life under any aspect, but
it may strain a point in favour of the Sister of Charity,
because, as it says : ' ' she is engaged on something
' useful, ' ' ' although she goes a queer way about it. But
for the contemplatives it has nothing but scorn ; they are
so useless, what in the world do they want to shut them
selves up for, especially when they might have been so
-useful in the world, and when the coronet is exchanged for
the veil, the world can only think of some mental abbera-
tion as the explanation of the altogether impossible
•occurrence. It raises the cry that was uttered long ago : " to what
purpose is this waste ?" For to the eyes of the world this
hidden life of prayer, penance and praise seems both use
less and wasteful. God does not want such sacrifices as
these. Of course, it will admit grudgingly, some sacrifice
may be necessary, but not this total immolation of every
thing. But the part of the contemplative has been taken up by
the Lord Himself, and He has given His Divine answer
in those unforgettable words: "Mary hath chosen the
better part which shall not be taken from her." There
is no restraining the power of prayer, it reaches out every-

192 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
where ; that prayer rising from the religious in the soHtude
of her cell, or in the silence before the tabernacle, is
reaching out over the earth carryng graces hither and
thither, converting sinners and perfecting saints, entering
where the doors are fast barred to all active intervention,
it makes its way, softens hearts long hardened, brings
tears of repentance to eyes long dry, comforts the sad,
strengthens the weak, confirms the wavering, heartens the
strong ; there is no measuring of its influence, as there is
no restraining of its power.
That is the contemplative life, no narrow life as the
world conceives it, but one wide as the love of God, for the
contemplative is there to plead for all, saints and sinners,
excluding none and embracing all in the fiery love for God's
glory which is ever burning in her heart. See how the
Lord Himself has set His seal on the hidden life of con
templation, when of the three and thirty years of His
earthly life thirty were spent hidden and unknown in the
silence of Nazareth. True, the contemplative never sees
the fruit of her work, or very rarely, for the harvesting
of it she must wait for Heaven. On the other hand the
active worker often has this joy of seeing the fruit of her
labour and beholding the sinner, in actual fact, returning
to the Saviour. But whether she sees the fruit or not is
little matter ; she knows that the Lord has promised that
the labour shall not be in vain that she labours in the Lord,
and above all she has His assurance that she shall : " go
and bring forth fruit, and that her fruit shall remain."
The soul who would consecrate herself to God must leave
everything — home, father, mother, brother, sister, lands,
wealth, possessions — at His call, like men did at that call
to battle seven years ago, when they left all to defend
their fatherland, never even hoping to see the faces so loved
and the land so dear again, crossing the seas to embrace a
life of such hardship and suffering as they had never, even in
their wildest dreams, conceived as possible, finally dying
there in a strange land, where they lie in their thousands
beneath the little white cross.
There is a remarkable likeness between the Army and
Religion. Both demand very complete sacrifice and very
absolute obedience, but they are also widely different, as

THE RELIGIOUS STATE 193
their ends are different. The sacrifice Religion demands
and the obedience it exacts is of a far more difficult kind
than that of the Army. The Army is satisfied with
external obedience, Religion demands the interior
obedience of the heart ; and while the Army demands the
leaving of all for a time, Religion demands the leaving
of all for ever.
When our Lord gives the call to leave all and follow Him
in the way of the Counsels, He asks for the whole, not a
part, not three-quarters or nine-tenths, but ALL. It is
only by this giving of the whole that the oblation is com
plete. And He Himself gives the call, no one can call himself.
It is He, speaking in the heart, Whose Voice the soul hears :
"Come, follow Me," as He passed through the cities of
Palestine long ages ago, calling here one and there another,
so it is now, Jesus of Nazareth is still passing by and His
Voice is still calling, and souls are still answering to His
call, leaving all that life holds precious, that they may
spend and be spent for Him alone.
And it is surprising to see whom He calls and whom
He does not. Very often, those He calls are the very last
in the world that we should ever expect. The briUiant
actress in the gay world of Paris is the idol of the multitude
one day, and the next comes the astounding news that she
has forsaken the place of her former triumph to enter
Carmel. How unforeseen and unexpected ! That's
exactly what is always happening. He called the most
unexpected people, when He was on earth, and sadly
shocked the pious people of the day by His choice. And
we see the same scenes enacted to-day, the same shock of
pained surprise on the faces of the sober religious folk,
when He caUs one apparently so utterly unfitted for the
cloister ; indeed, they are as indignant at His choice as the
Pharisees were at His calling. Matthew the Publican, and
inclined to say : " Why could He not choose someone more
respectable and better suited for the work?" The sur
prises of earth are very great, but they are nothing
compared to the surprises that await us in Heaven.
Well now, just let us look at these three Vows for a
moment. ^ O

194 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
Poverty is not of much account to-day. To be poor is a
crime or very nearly so : if you "haven't got on, why not ?
It must be your own fault." You are simply an obstacle
in the way of progress, so "just get out of the way."
Your business is to become rich by any means you may,
and, provided you become so, the world will not inquire
top exactly how you came by it; but get rich by all means,
honestly, if you can, and by any other means, if you can't.
Some years ago, one of the new rich came to a friend of
mine and wanted to get into Society ; she was ready with a
thousand pounds for the introduction. My friend, of
course, refused, but as the lady went aWay she said : "I
shall get in somehow," and so she did.
The world may, to a certain extent, understand in
voluntary poverty, brought about by misfortune or failure ;
it is a most unpleasant fact and the unfortunate victim must
be promptly dropped, yet it is at least understandable ;
but for anyone with possessions to give them up and
deliberately to choose a life of poverty in which they do
not possess the least thing, can only be explained as
incipient insanity. Voluntary poverty contradicts one of
the world's most cherished beatitudes and arouses all its
hostility, as our Lord intended that it should. It arouses
hostility even amongst Catholics infected by the world-
spirit, who resent the sudden disturbance of all their ideas.
However, they get over the shock as best they may, and
try to forget that that particular person was ever in their
circle at all.
Poverty in Religion is very absolute; since the religious
possesses nothing of her own ; everything she has is not for
her possession but for her use; it is "ours" and not
" mine" — our cell, our books, not my cell and my books —
in order utterly to root out the very idea of possessing any
thing. You must go to the Superior, even if you want so
much as a stamp for a letter. To the world it appears a
wretched slavery, whereas in reality it is a blessed liberty,
the Uberty of the children of God, the " possessing nothing
yet possessing all things" of St. Paul.
It is extraordinary what cares riches bring. The
millionaire is always on the verge of starvation, or thinks
he is ; then he is tormented with anxieties as to his

THE RELIGIOUS STATE 195
securities, whether his investments wiU rise or faU,
whether he shall hold or sell. The bank may fail,
thieves may break through and steal, a revolution may dis
possess him of all he has. What a world of trouble the
world's beatitude brings after all.
Now if you possess absolutely nothing, you cannot be
in much fear of losing it, or filled with anxiety about guard
ing it. Thus, by the Vow of Poverty, you can serve the
Lord without the entanglement of earthly things to spoil
your service. He, though He was rich in the splendid
glory of Heaven, yet for our sakes became poor that we
might be made rich. Utter poverty is our true riches, since
then we are most like Him.
The spirit of poverty means the desire to do without
things, even though they might seem to be necessary.
Little Sister Teresa had a pretty jug in her cell, and one
day found it exchanged for a very old ugly one. Instead
of complaining, she thanked our Lord for the opportunity
of practising the love of poverty more completely.
We must jealously keep the spirit of poverty, never have
in our cell anything save that which necessity requires. It
is strange how some tend to gather all sorts of odd things
in their cells and that is why there is an occasional examina
tion of the cell to see that regular observance is being kept.
There was an inspection, too, in the Army, everything
laid out so that the officer could see what every man had ;
not that there was any tendency to accumulate things,
when you had to carry them all on your back, but this
examination was to see that each man had all that he
should, for the tendency there was to lighten the load even
of necessary things. Well, perhaps if religious had to
carry all the things for their use on their backs, there
would be a like tendency, certainly there would be no
desire to accumulate.
Now we must guard against any little trifle spoiling the
completeness of the sacrifice. How surprising it is to find
ReUgious, after having made the great sacrifice, clinging
to some insignificant trifle — a smaU book or some reUgious
object with which they are unwilling to part. If you have
an affection for anything of that sort, get rid of it at once,
and you will feel all fhe happier for being free of it.

196 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
A Trappist Father out at Tre Fontane, said to me :
All our Fathers die very happily, because they have
absolutely nothing to leave behind them." At a certain
convent, a good Father giving the retreat, had just finished
a most eloquent address on detachment, when he asked
one of the Sisters to fetch his Breviary which he had left
behind. When she took, it up, it was so filled with holy
pictures that it refused to close : ' ' that spoilt all the effect
of the sermon for me," said the Sister. It is not suffi
cient merely not to have things, but we must not desire to
have them ; it would be to little purpose to leave the world
for the cloister, if the desire of the heart is yet set on
material things, for true poverty of spirit consists not only
in the entire renunciation of all possessions, but in the
abandonment of all desire for them. By this Vow of
Poverty, we take the first step in, freeing ourselves from all
external things and turning all our affections from them
that we may belong to God alone.
As by Poverty we surrender all external goods for love
of our King, so by Chastity we surrender all the right we
have over our mortal body for love of Him. It means the
greatest renunciation of all, of home and the family life ;
there is no sacrifice that can quite compare with that.
The married state is a Sacrament and there is a joy incom
parable in the home life, like to nothing else in all the
world ; and the soul, with full knowledge of all it involves,
leaves it all, because she has heard Him calling and she
has answered : "I come."
First of all, the Vow of Chastity involves the renuncia
tion of the married state, and then it means more, it
demands perfect Chastity and Purity of soul and body. It
is not enough to keep the body chaste, if the soul is defiled
by unchaste thoughts, since a thought against Chastity is as
grievous as an act. Every imagination, every thought
must be unsparingly crushed at its first beginning, it
matters not how, provided it is done. Sometimes only the
infliction of sharp physical pain can still the tempest, as
was the case with St. Benedict, when he rolled his bare
body in the thornbush, and never after was troubled by
such temptations again.
Just as Chastity is the most precious virtue of the

THE RELIGIOUS STATE 197
Religious state, so is it also the most sensitive and the
most easily sullied. There is no virtue the Religious must
guard with such ever-watchful vigilance as this. Tempta
tions will Come again and again, but if the soul has her eyes
fixed on her Lord, she will pass them by almost unheeding.
The most sure and the most certain guard of Chastity is
the gaze of the soul fixed upon the Giver of Chastity ; then
she cannot fail.
Lastly comes the Vow of Obedience, most difficult of all,
because by it we give up ourselves ; in giving up our own
will, we give up our own selves in the most absolute way
possible. There are many who can keep the other two Vows with
the utmost perfection, who yet find this beyond their
strength. It does not come to us naturally but super
naturally ; it is so contrary to that pride which is with so
much difficulty cast out of the human heart. "We return
to God," says St. Benedict in the opening of his Rule, " by
way of obedience, who forsook Him by disobedience." '
The foundation of the religious state is obedience ; take
that away and the state no longer exists.
So it is in the Army, take obedience away and you have
only an armed mob, more dangerous to friend than foe.
See what happened to the Russian armies once obedience
ceased. The armies melted away and in a short while
ceased to exist. The German military critics say that the
success of the British Army was due to their strict disci
pline, and the failure of their own to its slackening. In
the Army every officer down to a lance-corporal must be
obeyed, and once a man gets his orders nothing will move
him. "They are my orders, sir," and that is the final
answer to any questioning. Men never hesitated nor
faltered once the order was given. A raid was a very
risky affair, but the men all went off quite cheerfully. There
were the last words of farewell : ' ' Well, good-bye, old
fellow, and the best of luck," and next morning it was,
" Poor so and so went West last night." I remember one
gallant young officer who, because he was always
courageous and ready, was called upon for all the difficult
jobs. The orders would come through for a raid, and the
^ ' Regulae Prologus.

198 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
Commanding Officer would say to the Adjutant: "WeU,
who do you think we had better send?" "Oh, send
Smithers, he's always sure," and so Smithers would be
rung up on the 'phone and in a few minutes enter the dug
out. " Look here, Smithers, we want you to take so many
men and raid such a post to-night." "Yes, sir," says
Smithers, bending down to look at the point indicated on
the map. A few further words of instruction, and he is
gone, without so much as a thought entering his head of
suggesting sending someone else for a change.
Well, now, I have spoken a lot about the Army, because,
after all, there is such a likeness between Army life and
Religious life. But there is one big difference; provided
you give external obedience, the Army will be satisfied.
even though you may be exploding inside, but religion asks
much more : the obedience it demands is the obedience of
head and heart. The triumph of Religion is that we sur
render our own ideas and wills to do the will of anoth.er,
and that is magnificent. It is instant, unquestioning,
generous and complete, carrying out the order in the way
commanded, in the most complete and absolute manner
possible. There is no arguing about an order ; the only
business of the religious is its execution. So complete
was the obedience of St. Aloysius, that he dropped his
pen, in the formation of a letter, when the first stroke of
the bell went. That is what obedience means, the instant
leaving of one work and changing over to another when
the moment has arrived.
In religion someone is always in command, just as is
the case in the Army, where, if only two men were left,
one would take command and direct the other ; the captain
being killed, it is the lieutenant, and so on, down to the
lance-corporal, and the senior private of the two. Now
in religion it is the same, someone is always in command.
If it is not the Prioress it is the sub-Prioress, right down
to the senior of the last two Sisters in the Convent.
Obedience binds everywhere and always, there are no
exceptions to the obligations of obedience. How good
and sure and safe is the way of obedience, where there is
no room for self-satisfaction and the swelling of pride,
where we lay the axe to the root from which all other sins

THE RELIGIOUS STATE 199
take their rise. We receive an obedience as the Will of
God speaking to us ; the Superior is only God's instrument,
the telephone He uses to convey His instructions to us.
This obedience is the obedience of love ; there is a vast
difference between the obedience exacted by fear and that
inspired by love. The soul obeys with ardent, eager
readiness, receives every command of the Superior as the
command of her Lord and Lover, so there is a joy and even
a holy liberty in this obedience which divides it toto caelo
from the grudging obedience of the slave. It is this that
supernaturalizes the exercise of the virtue, the soul obeys
with joy, glad thus to manifest by the ever-ready prompti
tude of her obedience the sincerity and reality of her love.
He is King, Master and Lord, having the right to the most
loyal and most single-hearted obedience that the soul can
render ; but He is more than that. He is her Lover, and
so her obedience is the fidelity and loyalty of the Lover
as well as that of the soldier and servant.

CHAPTER XXI
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE AND DISCIPLINE
Now let us look at Observance and Discipline in Re
ligion. You all know what " regular observance" means,
and there is something wonderfully similar in the attention
to all the small details which we find alike in the Army and
in Religion.
When the young boys went off and "joined up" with
eager enthusiasm for the battle line, they entered into
a strange and surprising atmosphere. Everything was
altogether different to what they had expected. The drills,
forming fours, standing at attention, saluting, and all the
complicated ceremonial by which a soldier is formed seemed
to them so unnecessary, they wondered what it was all for,
and yet it was all absolutely necessary in order to fit them
for the work they had come to do. Those strange unin
telligible sounds which proved to be words of command, the
same evolutions repeated again and again with the caustic
comments of the drill sergeant to help them the more
speedily to perfection, all had their place in turning out the
boys who won the war. It has been well said that you learn
roughly, and in a short time, in the Army, what you learn
gently and in a long time in Religion.
' ' I always feel sorry for the Postulants when they first
come, they seem so like lost souls," said a little sister to
me once, and of course it is quite true, they are feeling very
lost indeed. All the careful observance of the little details
of Religious life strikes them at first sight as so strange, so
needless, and they are inclined to say : " I came here to love
God, not for all this ceremonial."
The young soldier thinks there are a lot of things he
would like to improve, but he is up against a wall. "This
is the way we do it young man," and he soon realises there
is nothing to do but fall in with it all, from polishing buttons
to folding a blanket.

RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE AND DISCIPLINE 201
11 is just the same in Religion, every little movement and
detail has been long since thought out and settled, and each
movement has its part to play in forming the perfect
religious, just as it has in the Army in forming a
good soldier.
The uniform with its many pockets seems rather strange
at first, but before long the recruit finds that everything has
its use. The Army attaches great importance to what
seems the merest detail, how a man stands, holds his hands,
head and so on ; the uniform must be kept smart and clean,
the buttons perfectly polished, the rifle bright, and all the
equipment in order, the pockets fastened. "What a lot of
attention to dress," thinks the young soldier, " can't we
win the war without aU this ? ' '
The novice feels just as much surprise in Religion. There
is a religious way of standing and sitting, holding the hands
and arms, the religious dress must be kept perfectly clean,
worn properly, not thrown on anyhow ; there is a right way
of adjusting its every detail as well as a wrong way, and the
young novice is inclined to wonder what relation it all bears
to the service of God.
There are pretty severe penances in the Army for faults
of discipline, military police to see orders are obeyed, and
the guard room for the defaulters. " The penalty for this
is death," and "the penalty for that is death," and
the young recruit begins to wonder, as he hears all this,
whether he will get out alive. The Army has its " Orderly
Room " where all the faults are dealt with, and Religion
has its Chapter of faults, in which all the various breaches
of regular observance are dealt with. You recognise a
regiment at once by its discipline ; if you see its members
slouching along with hands in pockets, buttons unfastened,
etc., well, you know there is no discipline worth speaking
about there. Why shouldn't a soldier have his hands in his
pockets ? Well, it isn't soldierly, that's all ; you feel it
instinctively, although you can't say exactly why. So,
when you see a Religious with arms swinging, you feel in
stinctively it is wrong, the hands should be hidden in the
cowl sleeves or under the scapular, and the movements
should not be too rapid. Why? Well, it's not religious,
that's all.

202 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
Why bother about a uniform ? Can't an Army fight
without it ? No, experience has shown that the uniform is
a tremendous factor. Men will control themselves that
they may not disgrace the uniform, and there have often
been moments when men would have broken and run, but
that the uniform helped to keep them firm. It is astonish
ing what a difference the uniform makes ; a young soldier,
directly he has assumed it, becomes a different being from
what he was before ; there it is, it is simply a fact, whatever
the explanation.
What the uniform is to the Army, the habit is to the
Religious. It does make a tremendous difference, it is only
a little cloth, cut a particular way, but it marks off the
wearer from the world ; she is a religious and she must live
up to the habit she wears. You can't measure what an
influence the Religious habit has on the wearer; after the
habit has been received, the young novice is a
different person from what she was before.
Every movement in the choir, every inclination, every
turning is important, it all goes to form character and shape
the soul for perfection. See a regiment on parade, it is
quite a religious ceremonial ; or the mounting of the guard
at night, carried out with zealous exactness to the smallest
trifle. You can sum up a regiment at a glance by seeing
them on parade, every movement absolutely perfect, every
man moving at the same instant as the others, it is an im
pressive sight and a great lesson too.
"You enter some fine church, say Quarr Abbey with its
great choir of Benedictine monks, and watch the marvellous
precision of every movement, it is wonderful and inspiring.
There is nothing quite like it in the world.
The best disciplined regiment is also the best fighting
regiment. All that drilling has been to some purpose, to
bring a man to conform himself on the instant to the word of
command, so that without reflection, once he hears the
word, he performs the action it signifies. You see its value
in action, when the men in extended order are moving for
ward against the enemy in perfect formation. It is a
wonderful sight ; there is the shriek of a shell and a man
falls here and another there, but the line is going forward
unheeding ; it is all the result of discipline, if there were no

RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE AND DISCIPLINE 203
discipline all would be confusion. And the Army is great
on tradition ; each regiment guards all that has come down
to it from the past and watches against any innovation. So
too, the uniforms are distinguished sometimes only by a
badge, but it is all important. The Yellow Diamond means
17th London and nobody else, and the Yellow Heart the
15th and nobody else. These details, all carefully guarded
keep up that esprit de corps that plays such a tremend
ous part in Army life.
Each religious Order or Congregation has its own dis
tinctive dress by which it is marked off from the others, and
there should be at least the same esprit de corps that is
found in the Army. It is quite true that the habit is only
a bit of cloth, but it is not the material of which it is com
posed, but what it stands for that matters. Just as the
soldier's dress is the King's uniform, so is the Religious
dress that of the King of kings, and the Religious loves her
habit because it is the outward symbol of her union with her
Lord. And she will love every little detail and every little
observance and token of Religious life, both those in general
and also all those that are special to her own order. So be
strict and exact and very faithful in observing all these out
ward manifestations of your inward devotion to your King,
they are the pledges and the witness that you belong wholly
to Him.
The Religious habit declares that you have given your
self body and soul to the Lord your Lover, and that you are
separated from the world unto Him ' ' an elect vessel holy to
the Lord."
What a wonderful spirit there was with the troops out in
France, everyone sharing alike and wonderfully happy, in
spite of the most difficult circumstances and most dangerous
conditions, and what a bond of sympathy through it all, and
how terribly the boys missed it when they came home and
settled down to ordinary life again. The esprit de corps
was wanting, and they felt the want of it. So did the girls.
I remember meeting one very sad faced W.A.A.C. in the
train, she had only been demobilized a few days, but oh ! it
was all so different ; there everyone wanted to help everyone
else, and here it was so different, there we were all so
united.

204 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
That is the great joy of Community life, the wonderful
helpfulness of it ; the common life and the common end and
the mutual sympathy and readiness to help which each sister
bears to another, the wonderful supernatural charity that no
one would beUeve possible unless they experienced it.
I say, if it existed in the Army, it is tenfold more true
that it exists in ReUgion, and of course in a more super
natural way. Each one sees in the other a fellow worker
in the same cause, one who, like herself, has been called and
chosen by the King. So the days pass with wonderful
sweetness and joy, which the austerity of the life only
makes the more apparent, for nothing brings out the spirit
of comradeship so much as hardship. There would not be
half so much of that supernatural and affectionate esprit de
corps if the life were easy and comfortable, and you
always find this wonderful spirit flourishes in proportion to
the severity and self sacrifice of the Order. Luxury simply
kills that spirit, it requires the atmosphere of sacrifice in
which to grow.
Saluting, again, is of great importance in the Army, and
after all it is only ordinary courtesy, and that is why the
Army pays so much attention to it. I remember the guard
forgot to turn out one day when the General went by, and
we did not hear the last of it for a week.
So it is in Religion. The inclination in passing is a
salute, and it is never omitted without loss to the soul. You
may say it is only the outside. So It is, but you cannot have
an inside without it, and ofttimes IKe exterior is a very
good index of the interior. A disordered exterior is
generally the sign of a disordered interior.
It is wonderful how the discipUne of a regiment can go
down in the course of a few months, once relaxation sets in,
and what a work it is to pull it up again, and it always
begins with such small things.
The same thing is possible in religion. It begins with small
things, omitting an inclination or the word " sister," when
speaking to or of another, and in a short time a Community
goes to pieces. If we always keep in mind for Whom we
are doing it, we shall never suffer the smallest relaxation to
creep in. After all, these little details are the courtesies of

RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE AND DISCIPLINE 205
ReUgious life and make a tremendous difference, and not a
single one is omitted without some spiritual loss.
It is very important to be always ' ' on time ' ' for each
duty. It was important in the Army, it was a great offence
to be late. If you did not hear the bugle, you ought to,
that's your business. So it is the business of the Religious
to hear the bell. " Ignorance of orders is no excuse for not
knowing them " in the Army. Why ? Because it is again
your business to know them. So in Religion, it is your
business to know if there are any changes or new orders. It
is what your eyes are given you for.
A true Religious is very careful to see what duties she is
down for and to prepare for them, so that she may
efficaciously fulfil them. If they are so careful in the Army
for a merely temporal end, how much more must she be
careful in Religion, for one that is Eternal ?

CHAPTER XXH
HUMILITY
We all want to get into Heaven, but unless we have
humiUty the low Gate of the Kingdom will bar our entrance.
Pugin was greatly impressed with the importance of
humility, and so, when he built his Church at Ramsgate, he
constructed a little wicket at the entrance, so that each per
son entering must bend low ; then there was a long corridor
for reflection, and another wicket at the end to enforce the
lesson. He desired that, by this inclination of the body,
the lesson of humility might be impressed on the soul.
Now people have the most mistaken notions about
humility and think it must be something extravagant and
exaggerated, but that is the very contrary of what it really
is ; humility is just the " exact truth," and the exact truth is
often neither welcome nor pleasant. When people ask
you to tell them the exact truth, you always wonder how
much they really want. Humility, as it is the exact truth,
is often extremely unpleasant, and a deal of courage is
necessary to swallow it, as well as to tell it.
Let us keep this first fact about humility well before us.
You hear people say they are not worthy to live they are
such worthless sinners, and so on ; but just cross them on
some pet fancy of theirs, and they will soon show you
whether they really think they are not worthy to live. To
pretend we are destitute of gifts we perfectly well know we
possess is no humility at all, only affectation, the very con
trary of humility. Every gift we have, natural or super
natural, comes from God, and so there is nothing to make
us proud, even if we do possess gifts of either kind. "If
thou hast received, why glory as if thou hast not received."
Now the first step in humility is not to desire human
praise. It is extraordinary how some souls are always look
ing for a word of praise when they do anything, and they
206

HUMILITY 207
must always be pushed on by a word of praise, or, like the
mule, they come to a dead stop. Of all foolish things that
poor fallen human nature goes after surely the most foolish
of all is human praise. It does not matter a straw either
way, whether it be praise or blame. How constantly we
hear : " I wonder what they will think," but how rarely we
hear : "I wonder what God will think." What does it
matter, since in nine cases out of ten human judgment is all
wrong, because ' ' man looketh on the outward appearance
but God upon the heart," and in consequence men are widely
out in their conclusions, and nearly always very unfair ? How
often we are praised by one person, and blamed by another
for the very same thing. So the soul that has God before
her eyes will not be moved by the praise or dispraise of men.
The only thing Ihat matters is how God regards it. Little
Sister Teresa found out how utterly unimportant human
opinions are, and how fooUsh it is to pay the slightest atten
tion to them, for, after she had been in Carmel some time,
a Sister met her one day and said : " Oh, my dear Sister,
how dreadfully ill you look, I knew our life would kill you."
A little later the same day another Sister met her and said :
"Oh, my dear Sister, how wonderfully well you look, I
never could have believed our life would suit you so well ' ' :
so, as she said, after that she was quite determined to give
no heed to human judgment whatever it might be.
The soul that is set on God is not troubled by praise or
blame, she knows the thing to be exactly what it is in God's
eyes, neither more nor less ; besides, as the thing is already
done, praise cannot make it any better nor blame any worse.
A good priest, very devoted to Rubrics, made the sad
mistake of kneeling at Regina Coeli on a certain Easter
Day, and it quite spoilt his Easter for him, he could not get
over it. Yet probably nobody noticed it, or if they did,
were none the worse for it. So we are not to seek praise,
because it is not worth getting, and we shall generally get
praised for quite the wrong thing. You know, after a word
of praise from one, you will probably get a cold douche from
another, so altogether things will be fairly equalized.
As the soul advances in interior ways, God's Hght, shin
ing within, will make manifest her defects in such fearfully
clear light, that she will realise very vividly indeed that she

2o8 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
is utterly undeserving of praise for anything she does, and
the more she sees herself and her motives, the more she will
despise herself, and esteem herself as the very least and
most worthless of all. A young lady went once to the
Cure d'Ars to consult him about her vocation. Said she :
" I don't quite see whether I ought to go to the Presenta
tion or the Visitation. I am rather inclined to the Visita
tion, because they know me." "Alas ! " said the Cure,
"they know no great thing then." Those few words let in
the light of humility, and she saw she must seek God alone
in her vocation.
Humility makes us like to God, just as pride makes us like
to the Devil. How often our Lord impresses on us the
supreme importance of humility, and on that one occasion
on which He spoke of His Sacred Heart, what was it He
said ? ' ' Learn of Me because I am meek and humble of
heart." A humble soul will always be gentle, pitiful and forgiving,
whereas a proud one will always be hard, harsh, and
revengeful. The saints were hard as steel to themselves,
but overflowing with pity and compassion to others. The
closer united the soul becomes to God, the more she reflects
the pity and humility of His Divine Heart.
Now the second stage in humility is willingly to suffer
humiliations when they come. They will come, sure
enough, have no fear about that. There are plenty of good
people in the world who will see you do not go short of
them. Harsh and unjust condemnation, biting and bitter
criticisms, everything you may try to do twisted into some
thing else ; all these we must suffer some time or another
in our life, whether we will it or not, and they can either
lift us up almost to heaven, or almost cast us down to hell.
If we bear them with patience, they will draw us closer to
His Heart, make us more gentle and lovable, more con
siderate and thoughtful, since, having experienced humilia
tions ourselves, we shall be very loth to inflict them on
others. And perhaps, after all, our greatest humiliations
arise from our own failings, mistakes and imperfections.
Of course I know there are some souls who think every
thing they do and say must be perfect. Alas, we can only
pity them and pray that some day their eyes may be opened.

HUMILITY 209
but I do not speak to such, but to those who have at least
begun to have some self-knowledge. And surely to such it
is their own failings and faults that bring the most grievous
humiliations of all, compared with which those that
creatures inflict are comparatively light.
A stage further in humility and the soul rejoices in
humiliations. That certainly is by no means easy, but the
soul that has begun her life of union with her Lord cannot
only suffer but rejoices with the Apostles, who, after they
had been beaten, departed from the Council : " Rejoicing
that they had been counted worthy to suffer shame for His
sake." Merely to put up with an injustice or harsh criticism is
much, to rejoice at it is more. So we must rejoice, for we
shall have many occasions in which to suffer. Remember
the beatitude of Our Lord : " Blessed are ye when men shall
say all manner of evil against you, falsely, for My Name's
sake, rejoice and leap for joy." The praise of the world
would indeed be our condemnation, since friendship with
the world is enmity against God.
When placed in positions of responsibility, and having
work to carry out for God that perchance brings praise, we
must never pay even passing heed to it, but hold ourselves
totally indifferent to it, no matter from whom or where it
comes. How often praise has wrecked the soul that has
lived securely under blame and humiliation ! God's praise
is all we have to seek ; if He is pleased, everything is all
right, no matter what man may say. How utterly absurd
it is to be pleased with the praise, or offended with the dis
praise of a fellow creature, fallibly weak and exactly like
ourselves. The soul, living her life in God, will be so entirely ab
sorbed in Him, that whatever praise may fall upon her she
will scarce be conscious of it. Having Him, she has already
all she desires, and in His praise, all she seeks. Nothing
repels us so much as the showing of pride ; it is so utterly
foolish and so contemptible, that even the most materially-
minded can only be amused at it. Pride peoples hell with
damned souls, just as humility peoples Heaven with saints.
We have not only to rejoice at humiliations when they come,
but to desire their coming. The standard that Our Lord P

2IO SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
has established is so contrary to that of the world, that there
can only be war between them ; humility is the virtue that
goes the most against the world-spirit. He has given the
example, for : ' ' He humbled Himself and took upon Him
self the form of a slave," to cure our pride.
We have nothing whereof to boast, save our sins, and so
there is no ground for pride and much for humility when we
realize that truth.
Sanctity and humility go together. One cannot conceive
of a proud saint — the thing is unthinkable. Why ? Be
cause the saint knows himself, knows that every good act,
every good thought, every good work is God's working in
him, that of himself he is nothing and can do nothing, and
yet that through Christ he " can do all things."
Humility never presses its own opinion unseasonably.
Some people seem to think they are the only ones gifted
with understanding, and strive to bear everyone down by
the force of their arguments or the loudness of their voice.
But humility is ever ready to let others have their opinion,
and is never tenacious of its own.
There are abundant opportunities of practising humility
at recreation. Someone says such and such a thing and we
are incHned to say : " Oh, no, it was quite different, you are
entirely mistaken." Now humility will keep silent, it does
not matter in the least either way, and consequently there is
no reason to intervene.

CHAPTER XXHI
SILENCE— SPEECH— CHEERFULNESS— PEACE
Silence is a very difficult virtue for some people ; they talk
to such an amazing extent that one wonders they ever stop ;
they seem to be silent only in their sleep and not always
then. Considering that for every idle word we must surely
give account, we need to be very careful. Silence is golden
and speech is only silvern at the best, and at the worst —
well, we had better not follow it.
Of all the ways in which we may most easily offend God,
certainly speech is the readiest.
The two chief topics of conversation in this country seem
to be the weather and our neighbour. The weather is soon
disposed of, and there is little left of the neighbour by the
time the conversation is finished. "Oh, I like her very
much, but. ..." That "but" disposes of her. If we
cannot say anything good of a person, let us be silent, and
in truth it will be very hard to find anyone of whom we can
say no good at all. Even the worst person out has some
good, hidden it may be, but there, if only we would look for
it. How amazingly the good in men came to the top when
out in the trenches ; it had been there all the while, hidden
like a spark in the ashes. It only needed the occasion to
bring it out. How often, as a party of men is going along,
one is stricken down by a shell, the others stop, bind him
up, and gently carry him away. It never enters their heads
to leave him, although the next shell might put them in
worse case than he ; and that happened not once but thou
sands of times.
So let us look for the good in everyone, and we shall find
a considerable amount of it in most.
In Religious life we have to bear with each others' de
fects ; there must be mutual forbearance and love. Let us
see our speech is always kind and never seasoned with

212 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
vinegar. If we had no defects at all we should be in
Heaven and not here, since Heaven is the home of the per
fect. Let our speech be always kindly and let us strive
always to cheer up the one who is down.
If a speech does not please, do not let us respond in a
Uke strain, but rather turn aside the awkward utterance and
cover it by a kind one.
There is immense importance in saying the right thing at
the right time. Some people are so inconsiderate, they
blurt out whatever comes to their mind without an instant's
reflection, while others, naturally thoughtful and
s)mipathetic, always find the right words at the right
moment. So many of the things that wound are simply
utterances without thought.
Our speech must always be governed by a wise discretion.
St. Benedict says of the Porter that he must be
one who knows how to give and also receive an answer,
and it does need very often a great deal of discretion to
know how to answer some people.'
The soul who is advancing in God's service is slow
to speak, because she knows how easily all that has been
gained by silence may be lost by speech.
The occasions in the Religious life for speaking are
necessity, love, and spiritual good of another, and besides
these three there are no others.
Necessity means, when we have to give or receive orders,
and give or receive explanations of the work that has to be
done. Love, when a few words may be helpful and the
spirit bids us speak. And lastly, when some soul is in need
of a little spiritual help and consolation. If speech is kept
within these limits, the Spirit will help and guide our words
and we shall avoid a thousand evils.
Silence is very precious, because it is then God visits us
and the soul advances most rapidly in the way of interior
union ; speech is always a great hindrance to the Divine
operations. Let us love solitude and silence. We cannot expect the
Di-vine visitation if we are for ever speaking and seizing
every possible opportunity to have speech of someone or
other, like those voluble talkers whose words rush on like a
torrent and the listeners can only get in a word now and
' Regula, cap. Ixvi.

SILENCE— SPEECH— CHEERFULNESS— PEACE 213
again. "Oh, yes, indeed." "Was that so?"
"Exactly." Nothing more is expected, and when we
finally get free of them, we only carry away with us a bad
headache as a memorial of their visit.
How sweetly restful to the soul is the stillness of a
ReUgious House ; its very silence speaks of God and the soul
is able to expand and reach forth to Him in a way thaf is
impossible amid the distraction of speech.
Then again in Religion we must always cultivate this
spirit of cheerfulness, that " rejoicing always in the Lord "
which the Apostle loved so much.
Cheerfulness indeed is a vital element in Religion. One
can always tell if a soul is going to succeed by that one sign
alone. God does not want us to "go mourning all the day
long." The Religious life has many difficulties, but a joy
ous spirit rides triumphantly over them all. A cheerful
heart is God's best gift and Our Lord wants us to rejoice
and be glad. The soul that cannot laugh is in a very sad
way. In the line, over in France, how astonishingly cheer
ful the men were, ever ready with a joke, no matter what
happened. Even the next section of trench being shelled
amused them. Going back to Ypres a young officer said to
me : "It feels quite homelike to hear the roll of the guns
again." Let us serve the Lord with gladness. We have every
reason to rejoice, and we can be glad even in the midst of
suffering, rejoicing that we can bear something for the
Lord. He has chosen us, set us in the cloister of His Love,
filled our heart with His graces, given us Himself, chosen us
to be co-workers with Him in the saving of souls and the
extension of His Kingdom. More, He has given us of His
Spirit, and the blessed promise that we shaU bring forth
fruit unto Life Everlasting. And lastly He has written our
names in His Book of Life. Surely, when we reflect on aU
this, we must rejoice and be glad. And we possess the
blessed peace that passes aU understanding, that peace of
which Our Lord said : "Not as the world giveth do I give
unto you." How wonderful is the peace which that soul
enjoys who has made the total abandonment of aU to Him.
She has no desires, no wishes, no aspirations apart from
Him. Her peace can be troubled by nothing that can

214 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
possibly befall in this world, for just as her peace is inde
pendent of everything in it, so it cannot be disturbed by any
thing in it. If sickness comes, if loss of worldly goods
comes, if death comes, well, it is His WUl. He knows it
all, and the soul welcomes it all because it is His WiU. In
the eyes of the world God is often cruel. A poor distracted
father met me once in a fury of rage against God. " God
is a robber, He has stolen my child, He has no right to take
hira." That shows how quickly the peace of the world goes.
But a mother, whose four boys were slain, one by one, in
the war, only said : — " It is His Holy Will. He has
taken them in their innocence that sin might not touch
thera." She possessed not the false peace of earth, but
the true peace of Heaven.
The soul, freed frora everything and clinging only to her
Lord, does not reason as to why He sends this or that tribu
lation or suffering, she just takes it with joy from her Lover
as a love-gift frora Hira. Of course this does not mean she
is like a marble statue, devoid of sense and feeling. No,
she has a heart that can suffer, and the closer she has drawn
to her Lord, the more capable of suffering her heart be-
coraes, but through it aU she knows that " everything is all
right," for life and death and all the happenings of time are
in His Hands. He is controlling the events of every
moraent and never takes His Hands off the control. He is
behind all the tangled mass of the world's troubled life,
sraall and trifling as it is corapared with eternity. And the
soul rejoices and is glad that all things are thus in His con
trol and would not have one of thera other than it is. He is
her peace. "In the world you shall have tribulation, but
in Me peace." Our peace is in Him and all the ever-
changing circumstances without can never touch it. The
soul says to Hira : — "Lord, take me, use me, throw me on
one side just as Thou pleasest, for Thy pleasure is my life
and my peace." There are times when He seems to be
asleep, as when the Apostles were in the boat and over
taken by the tempest, and, although the soul does not mind
if He sleeps in fair weather, she finds it a little disquieting
when the storm rages fiercely around her. Still even then
she is in peace, for she knows He whom wind and seas obey
is within her and needs but to speak the word to still the

SILENCE— SPEECH— CHEERFULNESS— PEACE 215
tempest and calm the waves. What a wonderful trust Job
had, without the light and the grace of the Sacraments and
the revelation of our King to help hira, yet when all his
goods are lost, and the breathless messengers of first
disasters have scarce concluded their tale ere others arrive
with the worse tidings of the death of all his children, he
only says : " It is the Lord, let Him do what pleaseth
Him." Then, stricken in his own body with a raost fright
ful disease, he still keeps his peace. "Though he slay rae
yet will I trust in Hira." What big deraands the Lord does
raake on His children and how well He tests the peace He
has given thera.
There is only one thing that can disturb the peace of the
soul, that is when her glance is turned in ever so small a
degree to the creature, then coraes disturbance ; it raay be
only a glance but it is enough. She raust have eyes only for
Hira and then His blessed peace will reign in her heart, even
though she be haled to raartyrdora. Her body raay be burned,
her eyes torn out, but her will cannot be touched, nor the
strong tranquil peace within. The world cannot snatch
away her peace or destroy it. All her projects raay fail,
all her labours end in the raost utter disaster, she raay seem
to be abandoned and forsaken by all, but yet, having not
even the least desire apart from Hira, she will abide in per
fect peace. She has immolated herself to Hira, made the
great abandonment. He is hers ahd she is His, and nothing
can tear her from His embrace. The Devil cannot trouble
her about the future, because it will be what her
Lord wants ; she looks to the past and reads the story of
His Love, and she sees that every circumstance, even those
that looked raost hopeless at the tirae, were all directed by
His all-raerciful love. She is without anxiety, she does not
perrait it to creep in, for the things that are dreaded raost
rarely corae to pass, although something else, utterly unfore
seen, does. She takes "no thought for the raorrow" for
the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. She
is mindful of the words of Her Love to her : ' ' Consider
the lilies of the field," and she knows that anxiety for the
future can only paralyse her in the present.
" Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you,"
so the great Apostle exhorted those who were living in the

2i6 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
raidst of persecution, not knowing which day raight see
their swift passage to eternity. It is this blessed certitude
of the Divine Lover's care for her that keeps the soul in per
fect peace. She knows that to-day's needs will have to
day's grace, and to-raorrow's need will have to-raorrow's
grace, so she does not want grace a day in advance as some
do, because she knows that He knows all that is coming.
She is assured of His love and so, totally and utterly aban
doned with the sweet confidence of a child in the arms of his
mother, she commits herself to His care.

CHAPTER XXIV
JESUS IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT AND HIS
ADORERS
There are mysteries of our Faith which, even, after they
have been revealed, lose nothing of their raysteriousness.
The Blessed Trinity, the existing of Three separate
Persons in one self-sarae nature, reraains as much a
mystery after its revelation as before. And so, too, the
Blessed Sacraraent reraains still a mystery even after its
revealing. How a little wine and a little bread can become
the God-Man Sacrificed on Calvary is a mystery which has
staggered the human intellect since its first shewing. How
the substance of the bread and wine vanish, and the Body,
Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ take its place —
the outward appearance yet remaining — ^will be a mystery
till the end of time. We know the fact, but the "how"
¦of it is beyond human comprehension.
The answer to those who hesitate to believe because it
is such a mystery is this : the True Religion touches the
Infinite, and that being the case, there raust be mystery,
for the finite cannot compass the Infinite; so they who
seek for a religion they can fully understand, search for
•one that must be false. We know the fact, and we know
that He "Who cannot He revealed it, that His Church that
cannot fail has declared it, and that is all we want.
Let us go back to that first wonderful moment, when the
mystery passing wonder was first revealed by the Lord,
and take our stand with the onlookers and listen to its
telling at Capernaum.
A little before Jesus had worked that most astonishing
miracle which shadowed forth in marvellous wise the great
miracle of the Blessed Sacrament. He had fed the five
thousand with the five barley loaves and two fishes, and
from that wonderful feast His Apostles had gathered up
twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained over
217

21 8 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
and above to them that had eaten. Then He had passed
over the lake in the night, walking upon its waters, and
in the raorning entered into Capernaum. And those who
had been thus miraculously fed, taking ship, crossed the
lake in search of the Lord. And when they find Him they
say to Him: "Rabbi, when caraest Thou hither?" and
He answers thera, "Araen, I say to you, you seek Me not
because you saw the rairacle, but because you did eat of
the loaves and were filled." And then He gives thera this-
most solemn warning : ' ' Labour not for the meat that
perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life,
which the Son of Man will give you." They iraraediately
say to Hira, "What shall we do that we may work the.
works of God," and He answers them : "This is the work
of God, that you believe in Hira Whom He hath sent."
Straightway, with extraordinary forgetfulness of the
miracle that had brought thera after Him, they say : "What
sign dost Thou shew that we raay know and believe
Thee ? Our fathers did eat raanna in the desert as it is
written, He gave thera bread frora Heaven to eat." They
do not perceive the arresting likeness between the bread
that had nourished their fathers in the desert and the
miracle of the day before. He corrects them and tells
them that the bread they speak of was only a shadow of
the true. He says : " Moses gave you not bread from
Heaven, but My Father giveth the true bread from Heaven.
For the bread of God is that which cometh down from
Heaven and giveth life to the world." At once they make
answer: "Lord, give us always this bread." Then He
gives thera the araazingly wonderful answer : "I am the
Bread of Life. He that cometh to Me shall never hunger,
and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst." At once
there is raoveraent and strife in that eager throng ; they
are staggered at His incoraprehensible words. He has
declared that He is Hiraself the living bread from Heaven,.
and they say : " How can it be ? Is not this Jesus, the Son
of Joseph, whose father and mother -wTe know ? how can
He say, 'I carae down from Heaven' ?" But He answers
thera and presses the fact of His Divine origin with resist
less force, and opens the raystery of the Blessed Sacra
raent. " I ara the Bread of Life. Your fathers did eat

JESUS IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 219
manna in the desert and are dead. This is that bread
which cometh down from Heaven, that if a man eat of it
he may not die. I ara the Living Bread which came down
from Heaven. The bread that I shall give is My flesh for
the life of the world." The bewilderment grows, and
there is the buzz of excited comraent as the astounding
statements fall on their astonished ears. "How can this
man give us his flesh to eat?" they exclaim. What an.
utterly preposterous and impossible claim ! But the Lord
answers with uncomproraising insistence: "Araen, I say
to you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink His blood you shall not have life in you. . . He
that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me
and I in Him." Even the faith of His disciples is
staggered now. They have followed Him, left house and
friends and suffered much, only to be brought up against
this claim that is so utterly beyond thera. They exclaim :
"This is a hard saying and who can bear it?" And in
truth it is a hard saying, and it has been a hard saying
from the first day it was uttered unto this. But there is
no coraproraise. He puts the question: "Does this
scandalize you ? What if you see the Son of Man ascend
up where He was before?" And so they turn away. He
has no explanation to offer to ease their difficulties, for
there is none to give, no softening of His declaration, for
no softening is possible. They walk no more with Hira.
They turn away from the Lord of Life because they cannot
make the intellectual surrender that He demands. And as
they are departing he turns to the twelve. Has He a word
for them that shall raake it easier, less difficult of appre
hension? No, never a word, only: "Will you also go
away ?" It is the great alternative, the utter blind
acceptance of absolute faith or the turning away frora Him
for ever. St. Peter answers : "Lord, to whom shall we
go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we have
believed and have known that Thou art Christ the Son of
God." The wonder is no clearer to him than to those
who have turned away, but he trusts where he cannot trace
and fixes all his faith on this, that Jesus is God and that
God's words cannot fail. It must be true because He has
said it. With strong unfaltering faith he clings to the

220 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
Godhead and the one sure ground of his confidence. He
puts no trust in his understanding of the mystery, all his
trust is in the infallible character of the Speaker. God
has spoken : it is enough.
All those who have taken their stand with Peter, from
that day to this, have kept the Faith of Peter. The
mystery is as great for them as for him, they believe on
the same ground as he. They answer with St. Thoraas
Aquinas, Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius, nil hoc verbo
veritatis verius.
Mark, too, how this first revelation was given when the
Paschal Feast was nigh at hand. Then there coraes another
Paschal Feast when His words shall be verified. The
last evening of His earthly course arrives, that evening in
which the old rite shall be celebrated for the last tirae.
When it is finished He takes the white unleavened bread
into His Hands, and breaks it, saying : "This is My Body,"
and then the chalice : " This is My Blood." The araazed
eyes of the Apostles see the mystery corapleted in their
very sight, the incomprehensible words of that other
Paschal tirae fulfilled, as with His own Hands He gives
Himself and they are fed with the Body and the Blood of
their Lord. How it is done they know not, but the fact that
it is done they know. In all the many astounding marks
of God's deaUng with His children, nothing is more sur
passingly wonderful than this treraendous mystery of the
Blessed Sacrament. It was a great mystery at the first,
and with the passing of the years it grows not less. Look
at that circle gathered round the table of the Lord, the first
adorers, t3pes of all those who have gathered round His
table through all the days of time.
First there is Peter, impetuous, eager, full of faith, and
in his ardent way loving his Lord very sincerely, yet very
weak and irresolute when he ought to be strong. He cer
tainly received his Lord with most heartfelt faith. Our
Lord puts something before hira as unwelcorae as the first
telling of His Passion. ' ' I have prayed for thee that thy
faith fail not." But St. Peter answers with impetuous
haste : " Though all men shall forsake thee yet not I. I wiU
go to prison and to death for Thee." But His Lord knows
him better than he knows himself and says : "The cock

JESUS IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 221
shall not crow before thou hast denied rae." Poor Peter !
he was very sincere, he meant all he said, and yet so short
a while later what a sorry figure he is ! He is a type of
those who ever since with earnest ardour and love have
gathered round the Altar, and yet in critical raoraents have
failed through over-confidence in themselves, and through
their failure have learned to trust not in themselves but in
Him. Then there is St. John, a wonderfully different type, an
interior soul who shared the secrets of the Divine Heart and
loved with a strong unwavering constancy. He is a type of
those interior lovers of the Lord who, when they have once
found Him, cling fast to Him through all. He was the
disciple "whom Jesus loved" in quite a special way. He
is next to Hira at that wonderful first Eucharist and his head
rests on his Lord's Heart. He is standing with His Mother
and the faithful women on Calvary, the only man to stand
beneath the shadow of the Cross. And yet Our Lord does
not choose him for the headship of His Church.
And St. Thomas is there, a strong soul and loyal, of few
words, and finding faith very hard. Belief does not come
easily to him. He wants to touch and see. When he hears
that the Lord is risen he says : " Unless I shall put ray
finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into His
side, I will not believe." Yet when the Lord coraes his
confession is very coraplete : ' ' My Lord and my God !
When he does believe it is with a whole-hearted belief and
there are no reservations. When the Lord was going into
danger, he is not very demonstrative, yet he says to the
others : " Let us go with Him that we raay also die with
Him." He is loyal and the type of all those souls ever
since, who have never found faith easy, but once they have
found it are very steadfast, very loyal, and very thorough
in the allegiance they give.
There is one dark sinister figure, Judas, so wholly out of
touch with all that is passing. Strange, Our Lord knew all
about him, knew exactly what he would do, knew his one
weakness — love of money — and, knowing it, made
him treasurer. It seems so extraordinary that instead of
keeping the temptation frora hira he put it right in his way.
How devout hearts have shrunk back frora the thought that

^22 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
Judas received his. Lord, but yet it is true. He, too, re
ceives his Lord. What a contrast in that first reception !
Eleven to life and one to death. He is the type of all the
betrayers of the Lord, from that day to this. How araazing
it is, that the betrayers of the Lord have always been those
who have been brought into the closest relation with Him
self. Trace the history of all the heresies and apostacies of
the past. I think only one heresy originated with a laynian.
All the rest were originated by Bishops and Priests, mostly
Bishops. They whose hands had been anointed and con
secrated, who had handled the Word of life, these have
been His cruellest betrayers, these are they who have sold
Hira into the hands of His eneraies. As we look at the Ufe
of Our Lord, as He has lived it through the ages in this
most wonderful Sacraraent, how we stand araazed that, fore
seeing all the betrayals, all the ingratitude, all the outrages,
all the sacrileges, all the cold indifference of His own. He
yet went forward and instituted this rairacle of His Love.
' ' He came to His own and His own received Him not. ' ' How
true it is to-day that His own receive Hira not. How many
Catholics pass the Church in which He dwells, with never a
thought of entering in to say even ' ' Good day ' ' to their
Lord. They have time for all but Him. What a wonder,
what an araazing raanifestation of the love of His Heart, is
this perpetual dwelling in the midst of His own. He who
holds the heavens outspread and the whole Universe in the
hollow of His Hand, who giveth life to all flesh, is yet con
tained in the little white host and makes His dwelling place
in the hearts of His creatures. It is a mystery so tremend
ous that it is not surprising that the first hearers were over
whelmed at its telling, or that raen in every age have found
it a hard saying. They found it a hard saying at the
Reformation. How is it possible, they exclairaed, that the
great God of all can be contained beneath an outward show
ing so feeble, so weak and so helpless ? It was the raarvel
of Bethlehem intensified a thousandfold. At Bethlehem
the might of the Godhead was shrouded beneath the weak
ness of the helpless babe ; in the Blessed Sacrament the
raight of the Godhead and the weakness of the Humanity
are hidden beneath the little white host. But His Bride did
not falter in her trust, she met the challenge and gave her

JESUS IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 223
answer : " Jesus Christ, True God and True Man, Body,
Blood, Soul and Divinity, truly and substantiallypresent in
the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar." She coraproraised
as little as her Lord. The truth becomes but the raore
definite the longer we look at it. No doubt if the Bride
would soften down the truth she raight win many adherents,
for the complaint is ever the sarae, she is " too exact and
too precise." But not to gain all the world would she be
guilty of the sraallest infidelity to Him to Whom alone she
belongs. The way is narrow, the gate is straight, and raen would
broaden the one and widen the other ; but not so the Bride,
she will not swerve one hair's breadth frora the Faith her >j
Lord has committed to her.
Who comes, to whom, and why ?
Who comes ? The great God who made all things, the
sarae Jesus uplifted in torraents on the Cross, the sarae Jesus
Who rose victorious on the first Easter morning, the sarae
Jesus Who sped triuraphant to Heaven, the sarae Jesus Who
will corae at the last to judge and doora the living and the
dead. Yes, this same Jesus, whose torn and bleeding Body
balanced the price of my sin against the matchlessness of
His Love, Whose Soul was severed frora His Body in dark
ness indescribable and in torment unutterable and in desola
tion inexpressible, this Jesus, Whos'e love exceeds all con
ceiving and Whose compassion passes all telling. He it is
Who coraes to me. Yes it is " My Lord and my God "
Who comes.
And to whom does He corae ? To a creature, the work
of His Hands, who, in the light of His greatness, is less
than nothing, to a creature who has valued His love
so lightly, received Hira often so coldly, so many times
squandered His graces, so often forgotten Him, so often
turned away her eyes frora the great beholding to try and
satisfy them with perishing things, to one utterly undeserv
ing of the least of His mercies and inconceivably unworthy
that He should enter in. And yet He comes ; Domine,
non sum dignus I And I shall never be worthy, though
it were possible to spend a thousand years in preparing,
that, even once, He should enter this poor heart of raine.
No, it is not that I ara worthy or ever can become such,

224 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
but rather my utter poverty and my supreme need draws
Him to me. Come then and make a Bethlehem for Thy
self in the poor stable of ray heart !
And why does He corae ? He coraes that we " may have
life and raay have it more abundantly." Life eternal, that
is the gift He comes to give. " As the living Father hath
sent Me and I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me shall
live by me." He knows the depths of our misery, out
wretched weakness, our conteraptible raeanness, our mani
fold failures, our own unutterable nothingness. Yet He
comes like a King to a beggar, not only to upraise us, but
to transforra us into Hiraself, that His own Divine Life raay
be our life, that we raay abide in Hira and He in us. With
out Hira we cannot live and without Him we dare not die.
If we are to live the supernatural life, it can only be by par
taking of that life, and He comes to be our life. He incor
porates us into His very Self, so that we may becorae bone
of His bone, flesh of His flesh, one spirit with Hira. By
this most blessed and marvellous indwelling He transforms
us — raore, conforras us to His own iraage and likeness — so
that in very truth we become partakers of His Divinity, as
truly as He became Partaker of our humanity.
Then He is Sacrifice as well as Sacraraent. When we
assist at the pleading of the great Sacrifice of the Mass, it
is the self-sarae Sacrifice of Calvary and not another, not a
repetition of that Sacrifice but the very sarae, just as the
sun which arises each morning is the same sun which shone
the day before, so is this the same Sacrifice, eternally one
and indivisible. In tirae, all things that are future are ever
becoraing present and frora the present ever becoraing past,
but when we step off from time into eternity, we shall leave
behind that which passes and come to that which is, for all
things are in Him. Because God is, the Sacrifice of Calvary
is. Near and far and past and present forsake their mean
ing when we come to Him. He is " The Larab slain before
the foundation of the world." The Sacrifice of the Mass is
the Sacrifice of Calvary ; the sarae Larab slain, the same
Jesus uplifted. Look at the sun. Each day he appears to
rise, travel Across the sky and set, but yet it is not so, only in
appearing. And so, too, he appears new every morning,
yet he is ever the same. Go to Rome, Moscow, Calcutta,

JESUS IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 225
New York, and it is the same sun which is shining on all.
Not a reproduction, but the same, not new each day, but
always and ever the same. Could we but step off this
world, as it spins through space, and stand away from it,
we should see the one sun without variation of night and
day. And the light of the sun is not diminished because
of the millions who rejoice in his shining. What he be
stows on one he bestows on all; what he gives to-day he
has given in all past days and will give all days to come.
That is a comparison very feeble and imperfect, but yet it
raay help us a little to realise the great fact of the Eternal
One-ness of the Sacrifice of Calvary and the Mass. Morn
ing by morning this Sacrifice is offered in every land, count
less raillions rejoice in the light of its pleading, countless
miUions have rejoiced in the past, countless millions will re
joice in days to come, yet It is ever one and the same, and
like the sun, is not lessened by the millions who rejoice in
Its supernatural Hght.
This great Sacrifice is life-giving, for as the serpent was
Ufted up in the desert that all beholding might live, so also
must the Son of Man be Ufted up, that aU who look may
live. He is giving life to all flesh, He has been giving. He
will go on giving until the day of doom.
The Priest utters words not his own but the Lord's, for
the Lord speaks through hira, so he says, not : "This is
the Body of Christ," but: "This is My Body" not:
"This is the Blood of Christ," but: "This is My
Blood." How wonderful it is! The sarae Sacrifice, the
sarae Body, the same Blood, the same Lord, the same
Lover. How shall we ever enter into this most tremendous
mystery as we ought? For the brief moment when the
great Sacrifice is uplifted we touch reality, this shadowland
of time falls away, past, present, future, far, near, all vanish
in the wonder of this transcendent Mystery. He is heard
because of His strong crying, it is the strong crying, the
eternal crying of the Everlasting Son. We stand upon
Calvary, for the Mass is Calvary and Calvary is the Mass.
It is the Sacrifice of Unity and St. Paul loves to dwell on it
as such. " We being many are made one " by it because
we partake of the one head, and partaking of the one Head
partake of the One Sacrifice. In that wonderful moment G

226 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
all that live and love in Hira are united in a way that escapes
every raode of expression, for the far off are nigh and earth
and heaven are oned in an amazing union in that pleading
of the all-sufficient Sacrifice. It is the Sacrifice of the At-
one-raent since it makes all one with Him and in Him, and
in Hira one with each other. That is why the Sacrifice is
such an altogether consoling act ; as we kneel there at His
Feet, we reach through space, we are in touch in a mystical
way with the dear ones at the very ends of the earth, nay
more, with the citizens of heaven itself. All barriers are
broken and swept away in its mighty unity. How strangely
blind are they who would divide the Sacrifice of Calvary and
the Sacrifice of the Mass, and see two where there is only
one. It is as impossible to divide the Sacrifice as it is to
divide the sun, nay more impossible. It would be very
foolish to suppose that the shining of the sun to-day takes
away from the shining of yesterday, but how much raore
foolish to think that our beholding of the great Sacrifice to
day takes away frora that of yesterday. There is no yester
day in Hira, for He is the sarae yesterday, to-day and for
ever. We behold the Sacrifice to-day and it is the same
blessed, glorious, all-saving Sacrifice that it was yesterday
and all days before, and shall be all days yet to be.
Only in a glass, darkly, do we behold the mighty Mystery
here below, but the day will corae when we shall behold It
in the great showing of eternity. Then we shall see the great
everlasting NOW of it in all its unveiled splendour
and magnificent majesty, since there that great Sacrifice is
the very light of the City of God, for that City hath no need
of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the Glory of God en
lightens, it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And how
glorious and splendid, dear sisters, is your work here at
Tyburn, where day and night you offer the adoration of your
love at His Feet, for He in His wonderful Sacraraental
Life is ever on His Throne to receive the love of your heart.
In the silence of this Chapel in which the rush of the great
world outside seeras strangely hushed and very far off. Our
King has ever before Him His Adorers ; in unending
succession you come and go, through the long hours of the
day and the silent watches of the night, for while the great
City sleeps you still keep vigil, pleading, praying, interced-

JESUS IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 227
ing with your King and Lover, and obtaining frora
His Heart graces that cannot be counted.
The Contemplative Life of Adoration of Our Jesus in the
Sacrament of His Love is your magnificent vocation, and it
is so raagnificent because so triumphantly and utterly super
natural, so totally at variance with all earthly conceptions,
so splendidly and defiantly other-worldly.
And He has chosen Tyburn to set His Name there, and
Tyburn is a wonderful place, because of all the wonderful
works that He has wrought there, and these are only the
proraise of a raore glorious and raagnificent and splendid
future. "The latter house shall be more glorious than
the first.". . . " It is the Lord's doing and it is marveUous
in our eyes." Tyburn is the sign of the supernatural, the
standard set up by the Lord in the heart of this great City,
for a testimony unto them. Yours is a great and glorious
Apostolate, for the Apostolate of the Cloister is the vastest
and widest-reaching that raay be, transcending all the
narrow limits in which human activity is restrained, reach
ing out over all this great City and beyond, over this dear
land of ours and yet beyond, over France, over Europe, and
yet beyond, over Asia, and the Apostolic heart is not yet
satisfied, over Africa, over America, over all the tearth, for
your Apostolate is only measured, only liraited by the extent
of it. Yours is the Apostolate of prayer and that has no
bounds, because He has set it none. He expects this of
you, it is what He has brought you here for, to labour for
Hira, to be co-partners and co-workers with Him in the
most magnificent of all works, the salvation of souls.
Of course, there coraes first the sanctification and puri
fication of your own souls, for He must fashion His instru
ments for their work. Very often this is very painful to the
instrument, but be sure that the more you approach Him,
the more you are being fitted to be a vessel apt for His use.
The rough edges have to be taken off, the great work of
purification done, you have to become all that He desires,
that you may become fit instruraents for Him. The soul
has to be emptied of all the things of earth that He himself
may fill her. And then, when He has fitted you for the
work, there is no lirait to what you can do for souls, for it
is no longer you that work, but your Lord and Lover "Who
works in you.

228 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
And it is no wonder He has established in so raarvellous
a way this Apostolate of His most loving Heart, here at
Tyburn, for it is a place that has been watered with the
Blood of the Martyrs. How glorious a throng of the Lord's
lovers have passed Tyburn way, through savage torture and
cruel pain to the glory of God's elect. They loved with a
love strong as death, they came here rejoicing they were
counted worthy to suffer for His Name, they reddened the
earth with their blood. So Tyburn is the fruit that has
been brought forth as the fruit of their blood, for the Lord
proraised one of His victiras that the day should surely come
which we behold. He showed His servant the future glory
that was to be established upon this spot, which He has
made glorious by the death of His servants, and He has
made it glorious again for here the Lord is dwelling, day
and night adored in that very Sacrament for Which they
laid down tlTeir lives. Your heritage is magnificent. What
is Tyburn but Calvary, what that Tyburn tree but the gibbet
of the Cross for His faithful lovers ? As He was lifted up
on Calvary, so His servants were lifted up here, or rather
He was lifted up in them. And now He Hiraself is Ufted
up in the Sacraraent of His Love, and is drawing all to Him
self. How amazingly and wonderfully true has the Lord's
prophecy of Himself been accoraplished.- For raen are
drawn to Hira, wherever this mighty Sacrifice is upUfted,
whether in the majesty of sorae superb Cathedral or the
poverty of a stable, whether in the one or the other,
wherever He is lifted up, souls are drawn to Him, and turn
ing their eyes to Hira find life in that sight ; there is life,
everlasting life in a look at the Crucified One.
As Tyburn was the glorious Calvary of His lovers, no
wonder the Lord has chosen it for His dwelling-place, no
wonder He has glorified it already, and is glorifying it more
and more every day.
So, dear sisters, you are here, first as intercessors. You
kneel at His Feet to obtain the conversion of sinners, to
draw souls to His Feet. You are here to pour out your
adoring love, to supply the place of hearts that are cold.
See that yours are hot. You are here to console His Heart
by the fire of love you bear Hira, and make up, as far as
you may, for the indifference of others. Here is your work,

JESUS IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 229
adoration, intercession — yes — and expiation. You are here
to plead for sinners, and if He will not give because you are
His servants. He must give because you'are His lovers, for
love can never be denied. Names stream in, people turn to
Tyburn with extraordinary confidence for the most seem
ingly impossible things and they say : ' ' Tyburn will do it, ' '
and indeed they are not disappointed. God has wrought
many wonderful works in this place, and a day will come
when all that Tyburn has done will be revealed, and then we
shall see that what we have kno-wn is only a trifle to that
which has been hidden. The sound of Tyburn has gone
forth unto all the earth.
And so you are set here in Tyburn to labour in this most
glorious Apostolate, and the Lord is saying to you as He
said to Sister Teresa : " Look and behold the fields white
unto the harvest," and He wants you to labour in those
fields by the way of intercessory prayer. God could do
without any instruments, He could do His work directly. He
could as easily enlighten every soul without any medium as
with one, but such is not His way. He has calle'd us to be
His instruments through whom He wills His work to be
done. He has called us out of the world, brought us into
the cloister of His love for nothing else than this. You
know, you meet souls out in the world who, you
think, should surely be in the cloister, and the
Lord's choice has not fallen on them. Then you
corae upon some wild young child, up to every
thing under the sun, and the Lord chooses her. Nine times
out of ten the Lord's choice is a perpetual astonishment to
us, but He knows what He is about. He has always been
the same. He is full of surprises. Matthew, a most
despised and unpopular person, hated by aU, yet the Lord
calls him, and again, St. Augustine, going the pace on the
high road to heU, and yet he becomes one of the greatest
saints. As it was then, so it is now.
Some He calls in the very dawning of life ; scarce have
they ended their school days 'ere His Spirit hastens them to
the cloister, indeed, often have they heard the voice of His
calling long before their school days were ended, and the
world says they are much too young, not old enough to
know their own minds, but they do know it. They have

230 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
cast but one glance on the things of time and it has been
more than enough ; as one called very early in life said : " I
looked only once at the world and never wished to see it
again." Others He calls after long years in the world, but
He has His own tirae for each one, sorae He calls early,
some late. He determines the raoraent of their calling as
surely as He deterraines their calling.
He has work for those to do whom He calls to His service
in this place ; the Apostolate of souls, He wants you to have
that thirst for their salvation that He had. He endured
that thirst in the blackness and torment of Calvary be
cause He was on fire for souls : "I have a baptism to be
baptized, and how am I straightened till it be accom
plished ! " His thirst for our redemption straightened
Hira and hastened Him to Calvary. The lovers of the Lord
must become like Hira, they too must be consumed with this
burning thirst for souls. How wonderful He is, for He says
to you : " Greater works than these shall ye do," and how
amazingly He has verified it. The Lord's shadow did not
cure anyone, yet St. Peter's did, but of course it was the
Lord in Hira. He is in us to will and to do.
What a treraendous relationship is that into which we are
brought with Him. We are His soldiers. His servants, but
much more we are His lovers, and everything He has He
shares with us as lovers always do. So because He has
power we have power, our crying prevails because His cry
ing prevailed ; when we plead He pleads too.
The wonder of this Apostolate of prayer is that nothing
can stop it and nothing resist it. After all, if you try to
argue with anyone and convince thera of the truth, they can
refuse to listen, they can refuse to enter a Catholic Church
or read a Catholic book, or think about the supernatural at
all ; but however they raay hedge theraselves in, the power
of prayer will break through, and without their knowing
why, grace touches thera and the light of God streams in.
"When Dr. Pusey heard that Catholic religious were praying
for fhe conversion of Cardinal Newman, he despaired of
keeping him and he was right. Prayer prevailed.
You have your work of reparation and expiation. God
alone knows how great is the need of it. Think of all the
manifold outrages and blasphemies against God and His

JESUS IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 231
Church every day, the miserable apostates, those who have
been consecrated to Him have turned from Him as Judas
did before. In the full light of God's grace we wonder
how any soul can forget Him. But alas, we have seen stars
fall frora heaven, and there was one saint who, whenever
he saw a prisoner going to execution said : " There go I,
but for the grace of God. ' ' We may weU make that saying
bur own when we hear of some ghostly apostacy. There
are some of whom, alas, the Lord says : " It were better for
that man that he had never been born."
So what a work you have to do. You must be both the
adorers and the consolers of His Divine Heart. Tyburn
is always a consolation to the Heart of our King.
Then there is a wonderful active apostolate that has
gathered round Tyburn. Souls broken and suffering souls,
hungering and thirsting in a wonderful way, stream in with
out the least expectation. It is the attracting power of
prayer, and they roll up to you here, just as they rolled up
to Hira when He was on earth. They knew His loving,
corapassionate Heart, they knew He would understand,
they were sure that, however unwelcorae they raight be to
others, there was a welcome for thera with Hira, and so the
raost extraordinary people gathered round the Lord.
They corae to you for the same reason that they carae to
Him, they know you are at least the reflection of Him, and
that they will find something of the wideness of His cora
passion in you. Souls who are frozen are drawn by this
fire of love burning at Tyburn, and they draw warrath from
its burning. So, dear sisters, be as wide as the Love of
God, the closer you, draw to His Divine Heart the bigger
and wider will be the reach of your love ; the deeper and
raore profound your pity and corapassion. Your love must
be as big as your Lord's and embrace all the earth. Some
think they will labour just for one little corner of the vine
yard of the Lord. He does not want that for He is not like
that. No, there must be no narrowness, our love must be
wide as the. Heart of God — embrace every soul and eveiry
land. If the story of Tyburn and aU that He has wrought here
were told, how amazed and astonished the world would be.
What He wants is fidelity — ^fidelity to the least grace.

232 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
every call, every inspiration, every voice from Him speak
ing in our heart, to each and all let there be the most fer
vent response, and so, labouring for others, we save our
own souls. " He that saveth his life shall lose it, and he
that loseth his life shall find it." It is only by losing that
we find, and how very much we fear losing. The more
utterly stripped we are of everything, the more utterly and
entirely abandoned to His good pleasure, the more we be
corae a fit instruraent for His use.
He wants you to becorae a living flame of love to Hira
self, and then you will be a living flarae for souls too. As
you look up to Hira there hidden under that little white
Host, you will be ravished out of yourself, and burn with the
longing to bring souls to that Victim-Lord and He will use
you, and, through you, grace will stream out from this place
in ever-growing measure. You are pleading here and others
are labouring outside, and your prayers are strengthening
them, even as, just across there in the Park where the cross
is uplifted and His servants are giving their testimony, their
testimony is being strengthened by grace from this place.
He is lifted up here and now, and souls are streaming in,
some knowing nothing of this raarvellous Sacraraental life
of His, and yet drawn all unknowing by His Presence, for
though He is hidden beneath a showing so small and so
weak, yet the Httle white Host veils " Him Who is the Lord
of Hosts, strong and mighty in battle." So He draws by
His Own Almighty power, and His grace streams forth in a
resistless torrent that compels them to come in.
You share with your Lord in this glorious lifting up that
is bringing light and life to the souls of men, and by uplift
ing you are satisfying the thirst of His Divine Heart and
hastening the consuraraation of His Kingdom. Only in
eternity shall we see the marvellous works) that prayer has
wrought. Out on the French front there was a rough old Protestant
soldier talking to a Catholic sergeant : "What's the use of
prayer, I don't believe in it," said he. The next day both
went into a very desperate battle, and, as it happened, both
carae out alive. The following day the old soldier met the
sergeant and said : " Oh, sergeant, didn't I pray yester
day." "What ? " said the sergeant, " Thought you didn't

JESUS IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 233
beHeve in it ! " " Ah ! " said the other, " I believe in
prayer right enough now, prayer's all right." In moments
like that, the most unUkely discover the value of prayer, for
it is the mightiest power in the world. We often think our
reasoning faculties are tremendously important, but souls
are not won by intellectual conviction, or the world would
have been Catholic long since. True, you may reason
people into the Church, but if you do they will most likely
reason themselves out again. The most intellectual
presentation of the Faith in the world may make no im
pression, sometimes you only waste your time over it, but
if you get to prayer the work will be done.
I remember a very hard case, a lady who came to the
parlour about the Faith, up at St. Francis Xavier's in Liver
pool. The good Fathers spent hours explaining, and she
was no nearer seeing her way than before. One day she
came again and the Father who had seen her before met Fr.
D.  on the way down : "You raight see what you can
do with her," said he, " I have done ray best and can make
no impression." Fr. D.  went in and spent an hour
without making any progress. As she was going away, an
idea struck him : ' ' Would you mind doing rae a favour by
wearing this?" he said, producing a badge of the Sacred
Heart. "Not in the least," said she, and with that de
parted. The next day she was back again to his great sur
prise, asking for him. " Was that a charm you gave me
yesterday?" she said, when he came down to her. "No,
why should you think so ? " " WeU," she said, " from the
time I put that badge on, all my doubts vanished." Only
the invocation, "Thy Kingdom come!" but grace had
worked through it. 'That brings out the supernatural grace
which transcends all our powers of reasoning. You may
confound a person by argument, you can only convince him
by prayer.
Have your great and glorious vocation ever before you,
and never refuse anything your Lord asks of you. Be atten
tive to every inspiration, for sometimes the Spirit brings be
fore us the peoples and the places and the individuals for
whom we must pray, and when He does we must not fail to
respond. Adoring, interceding, expiating in this triple
way, you fulfil His work, the work for which He in His great
Love has set you here.

CHAPTER XXV
THE FINAL CONSUMMATION OF ALL THINGS
We have traced the way of the soul in her life of Mystical
Conteraplation, up to that raoraent when she only awaits
the breaking of the link that yet detains on earth 'ere she
passes to the full consummation of her life in the face to
face beholding of God in Heaven. So we speak now a little
of those things which the Church calls the Last Things,
Death, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven.
We speak of death under a variety of aspects. We
speak of the privation of grace as the supernatural death of
the soul, that ' ' dead in trepasses and sin ' ' of the Apostle.
Then there is the death to sin, by the incoming of super
natural grace : ' ' How shall we that are dead to sin live any
longer therein? " "We are dead to sin but alive unto
God." Finally, there is corporal death, the separation of the soul
from the body, which sets a term to our life in this world,
that death which the soul eagerly and ardently desires, be
cause it is only through the gate of death that she can come
to the fulness of her life. As Walter Hylton says : "The
beginning of this contemplation may be felt in this life, but
the full perfection of it is reserved unto the bliss of heaven."
So St. John of the Cross speaks of the soul's long
ing that her corporal death may be hastened : ' ' The
soul's desire is not to wait for the natural ter
mination of her mortal life, because the violence
of her love and the disposition she is in incline her
with resignation towards the violent rupture of her natural
life in the supernatural assaults of love." ' She says (§ 35) :
' ' I pray for that Thou wiliest I should pray for, and for that
Thou wiliest not, I pray not for — it evens seems I could not
do it, neither does it enter into my mind to do so — and as
my prayers are now more efficacious and reasonable in Thy
sight, for they proceed from Thee, and Thou wiliest I
'¦ The Living Flame of Love, Stanza i., § 33.
234

FINAL CONSUMMATION OF ALL THINGS 235
should so pray, and as I pray in the joy and sweetness of
the Holy Ghost, and my judgraent cometh forth frora Thy
Countenance, when Thou are pleased with my prayer and
hearkenest to it — Break Thou the slender web of this life,
that I raay be able to love Thee hereafter with that fulness
and abundance which I desire, without end for evermore. ' ' '
In like spirit St. Catherine of Siena addressed her last
words on earth to her Lord : "Thou, O Lord, caUest me,
and I corae to Thee, not through ray merit, but through Thy
mercy alone, which I ask of Thee in virtue of Thy Blood."
The day of our death is the most joyful day of our life, and
if that seem strange and some conceive death as terrible,
yet surely death is less terrible than life. It is true that
in one sense it is terrible, for ' ' sin entered the world
and death by sin " ; but death, corporal death, for the soul
restored to her supernatural life, can have no terror, since
it only brings her to the full consuraraation of that Eternal
life which is already her possession even in this world.
Corporal death is all-embracing, not even our Blessed
Lady was exempt from the Universal sentence ; that death
none of human kind can escape.
We never know when sister death will come for us, when
we retire to rest at night, whether we shall see the morning,
or when we arise in the morning whether we shall see the
evening ; at any moraent, when, where and how we know
not, death raay corae for us. We raay make our passage
with all the Sacraments and rites of the Church to help us,
or without them, which it shall be depends on God's will.
All that matters is, that we are ready when the call comes.
The only preparation for death is life ; if we live in the love
and grace of God, we need have no anxiety as to the manner
of our death. " It wiU be aU right " whatsoever the way
in which our sister comes for us. If we live in God's grace,
we shall surely die in it. We have one overwhelming con
solation about death, and it is this : God has chosen
the place, the time, and the circumstances of our death and
we know they are the most favourable for our safe passage
to a glorious^ eternity. Death cannot come before He wills
it, and when He wills it, nought can stay the coming.
There is only one note about death that makes it
sad. Death separates those who love — at least as regards
' The Living Flame of Love, Stanza i., § 35.

236 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
visible presence ; nothing can separate the Spirit of those
who love in God, but corporal death does draw down a veil
of separation between us.
Death is raost important of all, because it determines our
eternal destiny. There are only two possibilities about our
state at that supreme raoraent, we either go out 'of this world
in God's grace or out of it. "As the tree falls, so it lies,"
and it is because of this treraendous alternative, that death
has such awful soleranity.
One thing I have remarked in the many death-beds I have
attended is the absence of fear and dread, even in the case
of those who in full health and strength had been filled with
fear at the thought of death. There was a strange peace,
even in the Case of those in great pain, as one dear child
said to rae in the intensity of her agony : " Oh, Father, I ara
so happy." Again, those who had sinned very grievously
yet reposed in tranquil confidence on the all compassionate
raercy of God. No matter what the circumstances, He
gave them His peace.
The most tragic death at which I have assisted was that
of a boy sentenced to be shot out in France. I heard his
Confession, gave him absolution and the Body of the Lord
the evening before. He prepared for the moraent with
splendid dispositions, not a word of reproach against any
one, or against the sentence passed on hira. " I am not
afraid to die. Father, and I am glad I am a Catholic," were
his last words as I left him in the evening. I asked Sister
Teresa to obtain for the boy all the courage he needed for
the ordeal of the morning, and very early I went to him. He
was ready and waiting to receive his Lord for the last tirae,
and walked to the place of execution without fear or falter
ing. He was placed against the wall. He recited with me
the last prayers, "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give you my
heart and my soul," and then, when I stepped aside and the
party presented their rifles, he said with great calmness :
"Good-bye, Father," the rifles blended in one perfect
volley, and his soul passed from earth to heaven. His
splendid courage made a tremendous impression on all
those who were present.
Heaven and the Blessed Face to Face Vision of our God
is that to which our whole Hfe is tending, and so we may

FINAL CONSUMMATION OF ALL THINGS 237
look with eager desire for the day that shall finish the work
of grace in our souls and bring us to the fullness of our life
in Him. That is quite another thing to desiring death be
cause we are tired and weary of suffering ; no, we may only
desire it because it brings us to Him.
Swift on death follows judgment, because on the instant
the soul has left her earthly tabernacle she appears before
the Lord to receive the sentence of everlasting life or death.
For the soul burning with love for her Lord, the joy of that
first beholding overshadows all else, she is so sure of His
mercy that she fears not His justice. But not aU enter the
presence of the Judge ravished with joy and love. Our
Saviour has painted a wonderful picture of the different
issue that may follow the soul's passage from tirae to
eternity in the story of Dives and Lazarus. In tirae and in
eternity their position is one of tremendous contrast. In
time, one was appallingly rich and the other appallingly
poor. There is nothing much to be said against Dives
from this world's point of view. He was an eminently
respectable meraber of society, he had a noble raansion, was
clothed in purple and fine linen and fared suraptuously
every day, exactly as a great many most estimable people do
to-day. I have no doubt he subscribed raost liberally to the
charities of the city, "did his friends well," and was
altogether a most useful and respectable citizen. At the
gate of his palace lay a poor beggar, by no means a
pleasant sight for he was covered with sores, and no doubt
the visitors remarked on the strange tolerance of their host
in allowing such an offensive object so near the entrance to
his house. The ancient Dives, then, has something in his
favour, for at least he left the poor beggar alone, while his
modem representative would have had him promptly re
moved by the police.
In the course of time Lazarus dies, and the visitors, seeing
him no more, doubtless remarked : "Well, poor wretch, it
is a good thing he has gone, he is well out of the way, ' ' and
with that comforting reflection passed on. But although his
going forth was so inexpressibly miserable from this world's
point of view, it was inexpressibly glorious from that of
the next, for the angels carae and carried his soul to Abra
ham's bosom. So it was all right after all ; poor, wretched

238 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
and stricken in this world, he had a triumphant entry into
the next. And in the course of time Dives died also ; even
the miUionaire cannot live for ever. Of course there was a
most impressive public funeral, and the various public
bodies passed their resolutions expressing their sense of the
great loss inflicted on the country by the passing of so dis
tinguished a raeraber frora its midst, and he carae to occupy
that six feet by three of earth, which is common alike to the
Prince and the beggar ; death levels all. But what a con
trast is his condition in the other world ! He is buried in
hell and there, being in torment, lifts up his eyes and be
holds Lazarus resting in Abrahara's bosom. In his agony
he cries : " Father Abraham, coraraand Lazarus to dip his
finger in cold water and touch my tongue, for I am tor
mented in this flame." But Abraham answers him : "Son,
remember thou hadst in thy life-time thy good things and
Lazarus his evil things, and now he is comforted and thou
art torraented. Besides, between us there is a great gulf
fixed." Then Dives thinks of those left behind, and he
says : " Send Lazarus to warn ray brethren, lest they too
come into this place of torraent." And he is answered :
"They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them."
And Dives replies : " Ah, but if one returned from the dead
they would hear." And Abraham answers : " If they hear
not Moses and the prophets, neither will they listen though
one returned from the dead." Yes, it is quite true, they
would not hear even though one returned frora the dead, but
would merely try to explain away a fact so disquieting and
upsetting and so opposed to their way of life, in the best
way they could.
As it was then, so is it now. If men will not be con
vinced by the outstanding fact of God's Church witnessing
to Divine Truth in the world, if they reject her claims and
despise her teaching, neither would they heed if the dead
returned to life to add their testimony to hers.
We see that immediately after death there is a judgraent
which deterraines the soul's destiny, and this judgment con
cerns her thoughts, her words and deeds. Her words, all
of them, /the good and the bad, the kind and the harsh, the
irritable and the patient. A word is an extraordinary thing,
there is first the mind-word, the unspoken-word, and then

FINAL CONSUMMATION OF ALL THINGS 239
there is the spoken word. Once a word is spoken it has
passed beyond our control, it has taken wings, others have
heard it and passed it on, and what it will do after it has
left us we cannot even think. In this world evil is ever
raore evident than good, but hereafter there will be a true
balance. Her thoughts, for the Saviour only regards words in so
far as they are the expression of thought : ' ' Out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." What we
think, that we tend to becorae, speech is only the outward
expression of thought. A sin in thought can be as deadly
as a deed. AU our thoughts, desires, and aspirations will
be judged, the good and the ill. Every longing to serve our
King, every desire for His glory, though never realised, will
yet receive His reward.
Her deeds. Every deed, without exception, every good
deed, every generous action, every patient bearing of in
jury, as well as every evil deed, every mean action, every
unjust act, all shall be exactly recorded. God cannot be
deceived, every secret of our heart is open to Him, for He
shall judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
We are painting our judgment in this world, like an artist
painting his picture, and every day we add something to it,
till the last day of all when the picture is coraplete.
Every influence we exert on others, for good or ill, aU the
work we have striven to do yet failed to accoraplish, all
coraes into the picture.
The Judge is God. How supremely consoling that we
shall be judged by Hira and not by man, for if man were
going to judge us, how greatly we should fear ! But God
is -the Judge, and we know that His mercy is over all His
works, and that while His justice is infallible, His mercy is
infinite. Man's judgraent is nearly always as harsh as it
is unjust. I was reading one day the Ufe of a well-known
person, written as the tribute of a friend. Well, I could only
exclaira after reading it : " The Lord save rae frora a friend's
tribute." God is absolute Justice, He will not incUne more
to one side than another, and His Justice will always be tem
pered by His mercy.
Again, we shall be judged as we have judged ; if our judg
ments have been merciful, we shaU have a merciful judg-

240 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
ment, for if we have been merciful. His mercy infinitely
transcends ours ; so there is the consoling and comforting
side, even for the raost imperfect. Shall not the Judge of
all the earth do right ?
But there is another judgment, when the rush of time
shall be stilled against the walls of eternity, a great day, the
day of the Lord, when all souls shall gather re-united to
their bodies for the great Assize. " What," you exclaim,
" is not one judgment enough, surely at the worst we cannot
be raore than conderaned ? ' ' But the full tale of all our
good and ill shall only be complete at that day, for what we
have done goes on spreading out like the circle on the pond
long after we have run our course. Influence on influence.
The thought is terrifying yet true.
But there is the supremely consoling side ; not all the
ripples are evil. St. Augustine set a vast amount of evil
in motion before his conversion, but he set a still vaster
amount of good in raotion after it, and souls are mounting
to heaven to-day helped by that great saint, and his work
still goes on and will go on till the end of time. So God's
elect who have lived their life for Hira have set in motion
powers that will operate long after death, " for their works
do follow them."
What a Fremendous day that will be when the Judge all-
seeing, all-embracing, shall gather all before Him. A
raarvellous mystery, what He will do in that day is hidden,
but He said to Mother Juliana : " I shall do a deed that shall
raake all to be well, but how I shall do it shall be hidden
till that day in which I shall do it."
There will come an evening when the sun shall set be
hind these hills of time for the last tirae ; people will be
planning and buying and selling, raarrying and giving
in marriage, and then there will come that amazing moment
when all the activities of earth shall be stilled.
The Lord has shown the manner of His coming, and what
shall go before it, for the Church, His Bride, His Mystical
Body, must have her life conformed to His, and like Him
she raust have her Calvary. As time draws near its ending,
the barriers between nations shall be broken down that the
great International kingdom of anti-Christ may be estab
lished. With what swift rapidity they are being broken

FINAL CONSUMMATION OF ALL THINGS 241
down, in a way that, thirty years ago, seemed impossible.
Apostates shall arise and deceive many, but they are only
the heralds and the prophets of the great Apostate. Our
Lord revealed to St. Hildegarde, in those marvellous revela
tions, the story of the Universal Apostacy of the last days.
The kingdom of anti-Christ is only possible when by the
breaking down of the barriers dividing the nations, and the
gradual process of their unification, the world shall be made
ready for His coraing. The greater part of the Church will
fall away, in the days of the gireat Apostacy. "For," says
St. Paul, " let no raan deceive you. There shall come first
the Apostacy, that the raan of sin may be revealed, the
son of perdition, who opposeth and is lifted up above that
is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth
in the temple of God, showing hiraself as if he were God."
After this Apostacy a persecution so fierce shall follow,
that "unless those days had been shortened, no flesh
should be saved ' ' ; there will be no country in which to
shelter, as in all the persecutions that have gone before,
no part of the earth that coraes not under the sway of the
anti-Christ. The daily sacrifice shall cease save in secret and
the faithful reranant shall worship as at first, in the caves
and holes of the earth. The Man of Sin shall be revealed and
receive the adoration of the whole earth, whose coraing is
according to the working of Satan in all power and signs
and lying wonders — lyng wonders not because they are not
wonders, but because witnessing to a lie — and in all
seduction of iniquity to thera that perish, because they
receive not the love of the truth, that they raight be saved.
Therefore God shall send thera the operation of error to
believe a lie, for they will not endure sound doctrine, but
according to their desires they shall heap to theraselves
teachers having itching ears, and will be turned away from
the truth to be converted to fables.
The marvel of the days of anti-Christ is that, refusing to
adore the God-Man, they shall pay their adoration to a
creature in his place, and, turning frora the truth, shall
give greedy credence to every raanifestation and showing
that the evil spirit shall work araongst thera.
The anti-Christ will be a great outstanding personality,
summing up in hiraself the spirit that has been steadily

342 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
growing and spreading itself over the earth, that false
deification of humanity, that crafty counterfeit of the true ;
the transition from the idea to the person wiU be easy.
The fire of persecution burns throughout the world.
Enoch and Elias come and bear their witness and lay down
their lives, and the triumph of the enemy seems com
plete. The sanctuaries are desecrated, the altars cast
down, the voice of praise silenced, and the faithful remnant
are hidden away, buried in the caves of the earth ; the
Bride seems indeed dead, and her enemies feel at last, that
she will never rise again.
But in the supreme raoraent of their triuraph coraes that
night when the notes of the last trumpet ring over the
whole earth, and the blazing, fiery cross appears in the
heavens, going before the Judge of the living and the dead.
That kingdom, that seemed so strong, shall be crumpled
up in a moment, and the great ones of the earth shall call
upon the rocks to fall upon them, and the hills to cover
them from the wrath of the Lamb, "for the great day of
His wrath is come and who shall be able to stand ?" The
Bride will arise from her grave, the remnant of the faithful
will come out of their holes, for their redemption is nigh.
The raoraent when the Devil's triuraph seeraed raost com
plete is the moment of his final and everlasting defeat.
The Saviour appears in all the unveiled splendour of His
raatchless glory, and His eneraies fall stricken at His feet.
The blood of the Saints coraes up for vengeance, the
balance sheets of tirae are cast up, the books are opened
and the final reckoning completed.
That is the consuraraation for which all creation is in
pain and travail, waiting for the redemption of the body.
That day will have no evening, there will be no second
Vespers to the day of Eternity, that day in which God
Hiraself will be the reward of His Elect.

CHAPTER XXVI
HEAVEN
Heaven and Hell — ^the great alternative, for, terrible as
it raay seera, there is an alternative to Heaven, there is
the blackness of the everlasting darkness, as well as the
brightness of the everlasting light, and just because it is
terrible we raust not refuse to behold it.
There is a place where souls are for ever deprived of
the Vision of God, a place where they share with the rebel
angels the eternal consequence of their aversion frora
Hira. No souls enter that outer darkness, save those who
have chosen it ; the lake of fire was prepared, not for raan,
but for the Devil and his angels, and they of huraankind
-who have part in it have not that part without its being
their own free and deliberate choice. Just as the essential
glory of Heaven is the face to face Vision of God, so the
•essential torraent of hell is the privation of it. Who shall
enter this place of torraent ? Are they many or are they
few ? That is hidden in the Divine Counsels — but this we
know, God does not send souls to hell ; they send them
selves there. The All-raerciful Saviour Himself has de
clared its nature and its existence in words that cannot be
denied, and, fearful as raay be its conteraplation, it cannot
be robbed of its dread reality by our refusing to believe
it. The war was almost inconceivable in its dreadful
•suffering, but it was not dirainished by refusing to believe
in the horror of it, the agony of it, the fearsome reality of
it The soul united to the Divine Heart, whose whole life
here below has been lived for her Lord and Lover, awaits
with eager impatience her entrance into the heavenly
country, where at last all the fiery longings of her heart
shall be satisfied, and the King she so loves be her ever
lasting portion ; there she beholds, lives and possesses in
the splendid fulness of the Beatific Vision.
243

244 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
The glory of Heaven is this face to face Vision, cora
pared with that, every other shewing seems almost as
nothing. Even lovers on earth find a joy in beholding
that is like nothing else in the joy of it, the gladness of it,
the very ecstasy of it. A photograph, a letter, a voice on
the telephone : yes, they are all precious to the one who
loves, but they are altogether nothing corapared to the
face to face beholding.
St. Thomas Aquinas was often revolving in his raind this
question of the "Vision of God, and, towards the close of
his Hfe, one day a brother whora he had left behind in
Paris, suddenly appeared beside him. Astonished at his
presence, Thoraas said to hira : "Brother, frora whence art
thou corae?" The Brother replied: " I ara with God,"
and Thoraas, feeling at once that here was the opportunity
to clear up his doubts, exclaimed : "Now, Brother, since
you are with God, tell me, in the heavenly fatherland do'
we behold God face to face or through a raedium ?" And
the Brother made answer: "As we have heard, so have
we seen in the city of our God," and vanished frora his
sight. So St. Thomas knew from that answer that in the-
heavenly land no mediura, however transparent, comes
between the soul and her God, but that she beholds Him
face to face as He is in His own Divine Self. For in truth
Heaven could scarce be Heaven if that face to face vision
were denied. True, we cannot, owing to the weakness of
our sight, behold the sun shining in his strength, for the
weakness of our seeing, overwhelraed by his shining, only
beholds blackness where there is splendid light, and so
some have wondered how the white shining of God's
Eternal Majesty could be beheld in the fulness of His
splendour, and the human beholder not blinded by the
shining. But He "Who would Hiraself be the reward of
His Elect shall bestow upon them a power of seeing, of
such strength that the soul shall behold God and not be
overpowered by the sight; He shaU give her that light
of glory of which His prophet has spoken : " In Thy Light
shall we see light."
Ruysbroeck speaks thus of our seeing in Heaven : "We
shall behold with our inward eye the mirror of the Wisdom
of God, in which shall shine and be illumined aU things

HEAVEN 245
which have ever existed and can rejoice our hearts. And
we shall hear with our outward ears the melody and the
sweet songs of saints and angels who shall praise God for
evermore . . We shall understand by love and we
shall be understood by love and God shall possess us and
we Him in unity. We shall enjoy God, and united to Him
shall rest in blessedness. And this measureless deUght in
that super-essential rest is the ultiraate source of blessed
ness, for we are then swallowed up in satisfaction beyond
all possibility of hunger."
What less than this face to face beholding can ever
satisfy the soul, longing as she does with inexpressible
longing to attain it ? The lover on earth is consoled by a
letter, comforted by a photograph that iraages the lover,
yet never satisfied with these, while the visible presence
is denied ; although they are aU tokens of love, they are
not the lover, and each one only accentuates rather than
dirainishes, the ardent longing for the face to face reunion.
Two souls separated by land and sea through long years,
draw nigh their re-uniting, and the fateful, long expected,
irapatiently awaited day coraes at last, and in a turault of
eraotions that may not be expressed, on the platform the
•one awaits the other, the eyes fixed with eager watchful-
¦ness on the incoming train to catch the first glimpse of
that other so long separated, so ardently loved, so
passionately desired. The vision of love is wonderfully
keen, and the moraent comes when these two, clasped in
each other's arms in a very ecstasy of joy unutterable, are
simply oblivious of all that is passing around thera, they
have no eyes, no sight, no hearing for anyone else. All
the long weary years of separation are forgotten in the
rapture of that reunion. They see, they love . . they
possess. But great and wonderful a thing as is the joy of earth in
possession of its love, it is ever shadowed with the fear
of loss, although, in those wonderful moments when time
seeras to stand still, everything else is forgotten in the
unutterable joy of it. There is no joy on earth without its
undertone of sadness, since the soul knows only too well
the insecurity and the uncertainty of all the joys of time.
But there is no sorrow raixed with the joy of that beholding

246 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
of our Love in Heaven, for nothing can ever come between
our soul and Hira for evermore. All the eager longing of
the soul in her life on earth here finds its full fruition, she
possesses her God for ever and for ever, He is hers for
evermore, and she is His, held fast in the embrace of Ever
lasting Love.
God, speaking to St. Catherine of Siena of the joys of
Heaven, said: "She always desires Me and loves Me,
and her desire is not in vain — ^being hungry she is satisfied,
and being satisfied she has hunger, but the tediousness of
satiety and the pain of hunger are far frora her. In Love
the Blessed rejoice in My eternal vision, participating in
that good that I have in Myself, everyone according to his
raeasure, that is with that measure of love with which they
corae to Me is measured to them. Because they have
lived in love of Me and of the neighbour, united together
with the general love and the particular, which both pro
ceed from the sarae love. And they rejoice and exult,
participating in each other's good with affection of love
besides the universal good they enjoy together. And they
rejoice and exult with the angels with whom they are
placed according to their desires and various virtues in the
world, being all bound in the bonds of love. And they
have a special participation with those whom they closely
loved with particular affection in the world, with which
affection they grew in grace, increasing in virtue, and the
one was the occasion of manifesting to the other the glory
and praise of My Name in themselves and in their neigh
bour, and in the everlasting life they have not lost this
love, but have it still, participating closely, with raore
abundance the one with the other, their love being added
to the Universal good, and I would not that thou shouldst
think that they have this particular good, of which I have
told thee for themselves alone, for it is not so, but it is
shared by all the heavenly citizens. My beloved sons, and all
the angels, for, when the soul arrives at eternal life, all
participate in the good of that soul and the soul in their
good. . . They see that, by My raercy, she is raised
from the earth to that plenitude of grace, and therefore
they rejoice in Me in the good of that soul, which good
she has received through My goodness. And that soul

HEAVEN 247
rejoices in Me and in the saints and blessed spirits, seeing
and tasting in them the beauty and sweetness of My love.
And their desires all cry out to Me for the salvation of the
whole world.
"And since their life ended in the love of their neigh
bour, they have not left it behind, but with it have passed
through the Door, My sole-begotten Son. So thou seest
that in those bonds of love, in which they ended this life,
they remain everlastingly. They are so conforraed to My
Will, that they can only desire what I desire, because their
free will is bound in the bond of love in such wise that
time failing thera and dying in My grace, they cannot sin
any raore. . . Think not that the bliss of the body after
the resurrection gives raore bliss to the soul, for, if it were
so, it would follow that until they had the body, they had
imperfect bliss, but this is not so, since no perfection is
lacking to this. So it is not the body that gives bliss to
the soul but the soul to the body, because the soul will
give of her abundance and re-clothe herself in the Last Day
in the garments of her own flesh which she had quitted.
For as the soul is made iraraortal, stayed and stablished in
Me, so the body in that union becoraes iraraortal, and
having lost heaviness, becoraes fire and Ught. Wherefore
know that the glorified body can pass through a wall, and
that neither fire nor water can injure it, not by virtue of
itself, but by virtue of the soul, which virtue is of Me,
granted her by grace, and by the ineffable love with which
I created her to My Iraage and Likeness. . . I told
thee of the happiness which the glorified body would take
in the glorified Huraanity of My only-begotten Son, which
gives you assurance of your resurrection . . . they are
all conformed with Me in joyousness and mirth, and you
will all be conforraed with Him, eye with eye, and hand
with hand, and with the whole Body of the Sweet Word,
My Son, and dwelling in Me you will dwell in Him
because he is one with Me."
God has so fashioned the soul that she could never rest
in her exile on earth; that union begun there, those
moraents of wonderful vision only quickened her with the
more ardent and irresistible desire for the eternal
possession of Himself. Although the soul, even on earth

248 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
after she has entered on her mystic raarriage state, is thus
one with God, that she is herself God by participation,
though not as perfectly as she will be in Heaven, for the
soul, by reason of her transformation being a shadow of
God, effects through God in God, what He effects within
her Hiraself by Hiraself, because the wfll of both is one.
And as God is giving Hiraself with a free and gracious wiU,
so the soul also, with a will the more free and generous,
the raore she unites with God in God, is, as it were, giving
back to God — in that loving coraplacency with which she
regards the Divine Essence and perfection — God Hiraself.
He receives this gift of the soul as if it were her own, and
in that gift He loves anew and gives Himself to her, and
the soul also loves Hira anew. Thus there is in fact a
new exchange of love between the soul and God in the
conformity of their union, and in the raatriraonial surrender,
wherein the goods of both, that is the Divine Essence, are
possessed by both together in the voluntary giving up of
each to the other, "yet the soul desires the full fruition
which she can only enjoy in the clear vision of eternity."
In that most glorious and blessed vision, faith is
swallowed up in sight, the soul no longer beholds Him she
loves through the dark night of faith, but in the cloudless
splendour and fadeless glory of the Face to Face Vision.
The soul, ravished out of herself, as she has been so often
on earth by the least showing of His glory, here looks upon
His shining in all its unveiled splendour, and is filled with
the most sweet and tranquil joy at the sight. She is held
fast for ever in the wonderful raanifestation of her God,
One and Three, where no raedium can ever intervene
between herself and Him.
But Heaven is also the possession of God, for Hope is
swallowed up in fruition. Hope gives place to possession,
and possession so full, so absolute and so complete that
nothing is wanting to the perfection of it, the everlasting-
ness of it. Every possession on earth has the possibility
of loss, the lovers clasped in each other's arms dread the
possibility of separation even in the joy of possession,
the child grips the mother and holds hef tight for the same
reason, the dread of separation. But the blessed and
glorious and everlasting possession of our God in Syon

HEAVEN 249
knows no shadow, is stricken with no fear, chilled by no
foreboding, for that possession is such that it can never
be severed. It is the very transformation, in all its utter
and entire completeness, of the soul into the Divinity, so
that her very acts are all Divine and the very love with
which she loves is His love in her. The possession is the
participation of the soul in the very life of God.
She is deified. It is the great possession.
Finally, Love reraains. While faith gives place to sight,
hope to fruition, Love never fails, Love never ends. The
soul has been overwhelraed, even in tirae, with the torrent
of Divine Love, but full and great as that tide has been,
it is as nothing compared to the Love of Eternity. St.
Thoraas, when he recovered frora his last ecstacy,
exclaimed : "In the sight of what I have seen, all that I
have written seeras as nothing," and that, after all, was
but a foretaste of the glory to come.
The soul is swallowed up in love, her whole life is love,
she looks and loves, is satisfied and never satiated, love
has reached its consuraraation, because she loves Him with
love worthy of Himself, since He is in her and she in
Hira with perfect oneness of vision, oneness of possession,
and oneness of love, to the fuUest extent of which she is
capable. That is the essential glory of Heaven — the
seeing, the possessing and the loving of God.
But besides the essential glory of the face to face vision
of God, One and Three, there is the vision of the glorified
Huraanity of our King, the Larab as it were slain, and the
soul caught up in that rapturous adoration sings the new
song : ' ' Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive
Power and Divinity, and Wisdom and Strength and
Honour and Glory and Benediction." Who shall describe
the music that swells through the heavenly courts, as the
voice of many waters, frora all the ransoraed host of
God? There is the Throne of God and the Larab, and there,
too, is Our Blessed Lady, the raartyrs' King, the glorious
corapany of the Apostles, the white-robed Army of
Martyrs, the choir of Virgins and Confessors, the vast
multitude that no raan can nuraber out of every kindred
and nation and tribe and people under heaven, all fiUed

250 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
with the joy of one comraon love and one coraraon adora
tion, for one the heart and one the joy of all that throng.
Each rejoicing in the other's beatitude, for the very joy of
one is the joy of all, their love is one, their joy is one, their
heart is one, their voice is one, their praise is one, for they
sing the praises of the Larab Who was slain and has
redeemed them in His Own Blood. And joy of all joys,
it can never cease ; it is the great everlasting NO W. Time
with its change and shadow of variations has passed as
though it had never been ; in that great eternity change
can never corae.
Thither we look up in this land of exile, and sigh with
eager longing for that day when we shall enter in through
the gates, into the City where God Hiraself shall wipe
away all tears frora off all faces, " where there shall be
no more death nor raourning nor crying nor sorrow any
raore, for the former things have passed away." All our
sufferings and many tribulations, all our contradictions, all
our crosses will seem as nothing in the light of that day.
It is worth struggling for, it is worth fighting for, it is
worth everything, if only we may come to the glory of that
face to face vision, in the light of which we shall indeed
know that the sufferings of time were not worthy to be
corapared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
If we have suffered with Him, we shall also reign with
Him, there will come a day when the children of time
shall become the heirs of eternity.
When the children of Israel were sraitten by the ser
pents in the desert, they were bidden to look at the brazen
serpent Moses set up, and they that looked, lived. So is
it that we live by looking at our Crucified King. Con
teraplation is looking at God, not reasoning about Hira, and
when we love, our joy is not in reasoning, but in beholding.
So the perfect conteraplation of Heaven is this beholding
of our God in His unveiled splendour. O ! the glory of
that never-changing, raoveless eternity, in which there is
no part to which we look back, no present that is passing,
no future that is coming, but only the eternal, ever-present
NOW.
That is the Day of Eternity, to which all the days that
are passing are a preparation, that will be our great'

HEAVEN 251.
reward and everlasting portion — God, His very Self, and
nothing less than Himself, and when we see Him we shall
be like Hira.
' ' Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper
of the Lamb."
"I go to prepare a place for you." These are the
words He addresses to the soul. But most astoundingly
wonderful of all is His gracious promise that He Himself
will come to meet her.
How eagerly at our home-coraing frora France did we
look for the sight of loved ones awaiting us, but think that
He, the Lover of our souls, is not sending His Saints to
welcorae us, but He has given His own blessed proraise,
" I will come again and receive you to Myself."
That is Heaven, to be received into the Eternal, Ever
lasting Embrace of God.

CHAPTER XXVII
LAST WORDS
All things corae to an end here below, even a retreat,
for all things are passing and only God is Eternal. We
make our retreat to find out what more He wants of us, to
strive to know and love Hira a little better at its ending
than at its beginning, to enter more completely into His
Divine Heart and become raore fully one spirit with Hira.
Love made us, love keeps us, love will perfect us. The
beginning and ending of all is love. The longer we live,
the greater grows the wonder of His great Love for us, we
see more of our own iraperfections, and yet we see too the
ever-increasing, ever-growing manifestation of His Love.
'" I have loved thee with an everlasting love." How well
we know the truth of it. His Love has followed us all our
days, even when we went away frora Hira that Love
brought us back again, that Love has directed every
happening of our life, that Love has set us here and
bestowed upon us a glorious vocation. And, if we love
Hira, we shall love each other in Him, not in any human
way, but in the Divine way we have learned of Him.
' ' Love one another as I have loved you, ' ' is His New Com-
mandraent, and the Apostle of His Divine Heart says :
' ' We know that we have passed frora death to life because
we love the brethren." That is the test of our love for
Hira, and, of course, if we love Him, we raust love all He
loves. So this love raust unite you all in a wonderful unity,
each Sister will love the other in the Divine way in which
He has loved her. Love unites, and unity is essential
in a coramunity, and if you are all united to Him, you will
all be united to each other. The uniting power of love,
even natural, is raarvellous, but it is nothing compared to
that of Divine Love.
So, dear Sisters, see that you love our dear Lord in each
other, underneath whatever imperfections you may behold.
252

LAST WORDS 253
Each Sister here has been brought here by the Lord Him
self, and so you raust love because He loves ; and what a
glorious, raarvellous unity of love there will be, if you all
love each other as He wants you to do. Love is blind, it
does not see the faults but only the virtues in the object
of its love. Love covers a raultitude of sins, yes, it hides
the faults it sees, draws a veil over thera, does not tear
open the wound but strives to heal it. Where this love
exists there is unity, when it goes there is division, for
love alone can produce true unity. You raay have a false
unity through fear, you can only have a true unity through
love. I often think the cloister is very like a hospital, where
the patients are all in various degrees of recovery. Sorae
are very advanced in the ways of God, and others only
beginning, all are striving to become perfect ; they have
not already attained it : if they had they would be in
Heaven and not here.
Our own sanctification is only wrought through Love,
and if we dwell in Love we dwell in God and He in us,
and, so dwelling, we shall bear all the little irritations
of our daily life with joy ; often sorae little thing gets on
our nerves raore easily than a big thing, even the rattling
of a rosary — as little Sister Teresa found out — so she
offered it to Our Lord and then it becarae sweet music to
her ears. That is the way with love, it transforms, it
renews, it quickens, and it altogether changes our view of
everything. If we love and we see a Sister with some defect, we
shaU simply go to the Lord our Lover, and say to Hira :
"Well, Lord, here is this Sister and she has this defect,
it is ever the sarae, but Lord, you raust change it, for after
all she is Your lover too." If we pray and tell Hira every
thing, He will work wonders.
Let the common love rise up frora this place with the
absolute singleness of one heart, let our love be as wide as
His Divine Heart, let us avoid every narrowness, never
allow ourselves to get concentrated on our own little
corner to such an extent as to forget the others ; let us
rejoice in the success and works of others, pray for our
King to bless each Sister in her work for His glory ; rejoice

:254 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
at every little success by whorasoever attained ; every little
advance of His interests as ranch, nay more, than if it were
our own. God calls us to love others more than ourselves,
because we are to love like Hira, and when He gave the
commandment He shewed how we were to keep it :
" Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down
his life for his friends."
How araazingly wonderful was the love that quickened
those first Christians, so much so that the very pagans
said : " Behold, how they love one another," and certainly,
that was not because they were all perfect ; they were
widely different in the degree of sanctity they had attained,
in their social station and relations, in fact in every way,
yet the mighty unity of love overcame all, and bound them
together in its strong and unbreakable bands : one in Him
they were one in each other.
So Tyburn raust be a great love-centre, a place where
love has free course, and where all are upheld and bound
together by its matchless unity, then you will all be in
touch with each other, because the closer you are to each
•other the closer you will be to God.
Above all else the unity of love, that love-spirit by which
each one strives to help the other on the way. That was
wonderfully shown out in France. A raan staggers under
his load, and another, as heavily burdened as he, steps for
ward, stretches out his hand to take the rifle and says :
" Here, give it to me." I have seen a raan carrying two
rifles besides his own ; that was the spirit at the front, a
most wonderful readiness to help. Never let the spirit of
criticisra find entrance araongst you ; a critical spirit drives
away grace and dries up love. Love and criticisra cannot
•dwell together. You see a soul full of criticism and you
see a soul frora which the love of God has fled. If ever
the Devil puts the criticism of a Sister into your heart,
¦dash it against that rock which is Christ. As St. Benedict
says, never give way to a grumbling or complaining spirit :
when it's tirae to grurable it's time to go. One discon
tented, complaining person can infect a whole coraraunity,
it is raore infectious than the measles, and infinitely raore
¦deadly. So watch the very first sign of criticisra or fault
finding, and crush it out of your heart.

LAST WORDS 255
Never be down on a Sister, be the matter what it may.
You cannot tell what a brave struggle she put up before
she failed, or how raany tiraes she has " won through,"
for the one failure you have seen. You know we feel it
very hard in our own case if soraeone coraes down on us
like a thousand of bricks, especially if we have been trying
to 3o our best all the tirae. Now, dear Sisters, reraember
our Blessed Lord will never let us down.
Soraetimes at the front a young officer would get into a
difficult position by sorae unwise raove, but he had to be
helped out in the best way possible ; no one was going to
let hira down. And Our Lord Who loves us a railUon
tiraes raore than anyone else can, will never let us down.
We may raake mistakes and bad ones, too, but He in His
wonderfully, loving, compassionate way will see us through
and " make all to be well."
Dear Sisters, let us keep liberty of spirit, that blessed
liberty and simplicity of spirit wherewith Christ has made
ns free. You know how the child comes flying into the
arms of the mother, it does not spend ten minutes reflect
ing on how it should enter, because love is too eager for
that, and it is caught in the mother's embrace ; she does
not send it out that it may make a raore dignified entrance.
God loves us with raore than the mother's love ; He Him
self has told us so.
There is a blessed freedom in the intercourse between
the soul and her Lover that is as far removed frora the cold
rigidity of Jansenisra as the heavens are from the earth.
I looked in a Church in London one day and saw a notice
on the door that Holy Comraunion would be given out of
Mass, but that those using the privilege must spend fifteen
minutes in preparation and fifteen minutes in thanksgiving.
I pitied the poor work girls who had been granted such a
favour. What a blessing it is that Our Lord is so different
and so unconventional. I ara sure that if sorae people had
their will, the way to heaven would be closed to all but a
¦very select few.
"That is why I love Italy : it does one good to see their
liberty of spirit ; the Church is the Father's Horae, and the
children are always welcorae. In sorae Churches the
people are all praying aloud, each in their own way, and

256 SUPERNATURAL MYSTICISM
the priest's voice is drowned in the soaring voice of peti
tion ; it is all very unconventional, but I ara sure Our Lord
is very pleased with it. Sorae souls say the raost daring
things to Our Lord because they love much, for love is
daring, they ask the raost irapossible things, and He gives
thera, just because of their love.
Live in the spirit of sacrifice ; sacrifice is love raani-
festing itself, and love must find a way to manifest itself,
it cannot be held in, it breaks through every obstacle.
So, on this glorious spot where your Lord has brought
you to labour with Him in the redemption of souls, every
thing inspires you with the spirit of sacrifice, for here the
Martyrs made their glorious sacrifice in union with their
King. Here He was uplifted again and glorified in their
passion. Those who love will also sacrifice, because they
must show their love, and every sacrifice is delightful to
love, because love makes the greatest burden light, and
there is a delight in bringing to our Love that which has
cost us something.
It may be He will leave us sometimes in the darkness.
Well, what does it matter? Darkness is light with Him.
He is living and suffering in us, and if He suffers in us, be
sure there will be splendid fruit of it, and the magnificent
apostolate of Tyburn must be perfected, like all His works,
by suffering.
There are times when He does not speak and all is
silent ; but reraeraber, we are lovers, and lovers can spend
hours together without saying anything, the presence is
all they want. So it is with us, we have Hira and He has
us, and that is everything. We are just glad to be in His
Presence, and He is glad we are there.
So, dear Sisters, spend yourselves in the love and service
of your King, in your triple work here at Tyburn —
Adoration, Intercession, Expiation — burnt out, consumed
as the wax and wick of the candle in giving light, and then
your King Hiraself will grant you a glorious and triuraphant
entry to the Kingdora He has prepared for you before the
foundation of the world.

APPENDIX
In coimection with Chapter XIX. the following particulars
may be of interest : —
Associazione delle Vittime per la Santa Ckiesa.— The Associa
tion of those who offer themselves as victims for Holy Church.
Article I. — The Association is established at the Convent of
the Little Company of Mary, Rome. {Piccola Compagnia
de Maria, via San Ste f ano Rotondo 6).
Article II. — The end of the Association is to gather together
under the protection of the Maternal Heart of Mary,
devout persons of both sexes, in order that they may
dedicate themselves the more completely and entirely to
the interests of the Church and the Vicar of Jesus Christ,
by their prayers, works and sufferings, offering for that
end all the pains both of soul and body which may befall
than.
Article III. — The Spirit of the Association is essentially that
of Calvary. The Victims must watch and pray at the
foot of the Cross, in union with the sorrowful heart of
Mary, knowing that as they share the ignominy and
Passion of her Divine Son, upon that Sacred Mount, so
they will one day participate in His Glory. Their whole
life, therefore, every thought, every word, every action
must be united to the most perfect Oblation of the
Supreme Victim, so that they can say, in truth, " I am
crucified with Christ."
Article IV. — In Rome, the Association will have a director,
nominated by His Eminence the Cardinal Vicar.
Article V. — As it is necessary that those who enrol themselves
in the Association should fully know the spirit and the
effects of the offering which they raake to our Lord, no
one will be admitted before they have completed their
fifteenth year, and after having given proof of under
standing the spiritual importance of the act which they
are about to make. ^57 S

258 APPENDIX
Article VI.— Those who are admitted by the Director to form
part of this Association will spend a period of time, to
be fixed by him, in prayer and recollection. "When this
period is past they will hear Holy Mass, and after
having received Holy Communion, will read the Act of
Consecration, and receive from the priests' hands the
blessed ring, with the motto, " Pro pontifice et Ecclesia. "
symbol of the offering which they have made of them
selves to our Lord. This Act of Consecration will be
renewed on each anniversary of the first Offering.
Article VII.— Practices of the Association. 1. The Victims
aim above all at their own greater perfection in the exact
fulfilment of their daily duties. 2. They will also per
form special practices of piety and mortification under
the direction of their Confessor. 3. In every work,
undertaking or enterprise, they will place the interest of
the Church before their own individual interests. 4. In
imitation of Him, Who went about everywhere doing
good, they will devote themselves to the salvation and
sanctification of their neighbour, and particularly to
those of their own family.

ACT OF CONSECRATION.
O my God, I offer myself a victim of holocaust to Thine out
raged Justice and to Thy merciful Love, to suffer in my body
and in my soul whatever Thou shalt will, whenever Thou shalt
will and for as long as Thou shalt will, in expiation and
reparation for the grievous offences and many outrages committed
against Thee by sinful man. I offer myself, hidden in union
with the one great, All-sufficient Sacrifice which was offered to
Thee on Calvary by Thine Only Begotten Son. To His merits
I unite all my acts and sufferings, well knowing that of myself, I
can do nothing. Look not upon me, Eternal Father, and upon
my poor sacrifice, but look upon Thy Son, in Whom Thou art
ever well-pleased. In accepting Him, accept me, for I live
and am hidden in Him. O my God, may He suffer in me, and
I in Him.

APPENDIX 259
O Jesus, as Thou canst not now bear again the sins of men
in Thine own Divine Person, deign, I beseech Thee, to bear
them in me. Come, Lord, and suffer in me. Thy sinful
creature, who only wishes to be Thy loving little Victim. —
Amen.

BasUius Diaconis S. Mariae in Domnica S.E.R. Cardinalis
Pompili S. Smi. D. N. Papae Vicarius Generalis Romanae
Curiae eiusque Districtus Judex Ord ; occ :
Piam Chritefidelium Consociationem sub nomine Victimarum
pro Ecclesia qui namque seipsos labores et poenas offereunt Deo
pro Ecclesia Christi, in sacello Sororum Parvae Societatis
Mariae Romae ad Coelium Montem degentum praesenti decreto
Auctoritate nostra Ordinaria erigimus et erectum esse
pronuntiamus : eiusque leges, huic decreto adnexas septem
articulos comprehensas adprobamus, servata nobis et
Sucessoribus nostris faciltate eas immutandi quoties oppor-
tuniim visum fuerit.
Datum Romae ex Aedibus Vicariatus die 27 mensis januarii,
1914. B. Card : Vicarius.
F. Can : Pascucci, Secretarius.
Praesens exemplar concordat cum originali in Archive huius
Vicariatus adservata. Romae, die 30 mensis januarii, 1914.
(Signed) F. Pascucci, secretarius.

Chapter IV., p. 32. — "The light from the nearest stars
takes nigh two thousand years to reach the earth," should read
"days" for "years."

INDEX

A Page
Abandonment by God, The
soul's experience in passive
night of spirit  117
Abandonment of Calvary ... 61
Absence of things no help to
soul if she still desires them 106
Absolute conformity extends
to everything  14
Acceptance of God's Will ... 14
Active Apostolate round
Tyburn  231
Active life, The  191
Actual Grace ...  25
Actual sin produces state of
sin  45
Actuality in prayer  79
Adorers of Jesus  226
Adultery, Woman taken in 70
Agony of Mystical Substitu
tion  187
Agony in the Garden  57
All, The Eeligious must give 193
Aloysius, Saint, and obedience 198
Angela of Foligno, Saint,
God's words to her in
darkness  118
Angela of Foligno, Saint,
description of soul taken up
into God  139
Angelic mode of communi
cation  36
Angels, Communion between
men and  167
Angels, Creation of  34
Angels, Fall of  41
Angels, Grood and bad ... 168
Angels, Knowledge of  34
Angels, Powers of  35
Anger, Passion of  101
Annunciation  49
Anti-Christ, The Kingdom of 241
An ti- Christ, The overthrow of 342
Apostacy, The great  241
Apostles after Pentecost ... 24
Apostles, How Grace changed 24
Apostles, The choice of the 64
Apostolate of prayer on
Tyburn  227, 229
Apostolicity  71
Apparitions not true contem
plation  114
Arresting of desires within
the soul  106

Page
Association of Victims ... 188
Attention in prayer  81
Attachment to places  88
Attachment of religious to
trifles  88
Attachment to things  87
Aversion, Passion of  100
B
Benedict, Saint, on obedience 197
Best disciplined regiment the
beat fighting regiment ... 202
Bethlehem and the Blessed
Sacrament  222
Blessed Sacrament, Church
holds fast to the  223
Bliss of Heaven, Love, sight,
possession —  245
Bride of Christ, The Church
is the  64

Calls, Those whom God ... 193
Calvary  59
Calvary, The Churches' ... 72
Carelessness in manner and
dress in Army and in
Religion  201
Cares, How they blind the
soul  22
Care of us, God's  18
Catherine of Siena, Saint as
victim of the Church ... 184
Catholicity, The Church is
for all time and all peoples 70
Chapter of Faults  201
Chastity, The most precious
possession of all  197
Chastity, The vow of  196
Chastity, Temptations against 180
Cheerfulness a vital element
in religious life  913
Cheerfulness at the front ... 213
Choice, God's  28
Choice of God's will  13
Choice, Unexpected character
of God's  193
Choir Worship  77
Church, Entirely supernatural 167
Church not surprised at
miracles of the Saints ... 167

361

262

INDEX

Page
Church unwavering in her
faith about the BrOal
Presence  223
Circumsession  168
Clinging to sensible sweet
ness, Danger of  104
Cloister like a Hospital ... 253
Cloister, World's notion of... 27
Cloistered life. Opposition of
the world to the  191
Cloistered life not narrow but
a great apostolate  192
Cloistered life. The  191
Closing the windows of the
five senses  106
Comfort, Soul finds none in
dark night  119
Command in religion and the
Army, Someone always in 198
Command, The Divine ... 42
Common life, Eeligious life
the  190
Common love. Value of ... 253
Common Sense, The  97
Communication , Angelic mode
of  36
Communication, Difficulty of
human  36
Communion between Heaven ,
Earth, and Purgatory ... 167
Comparison between the Sun
and the Sacrifice of the
Mass  224, 225
Compassion for Sinners, Soul
in love with God has great 164
Compassion of Christ, Church
reflects  70
Complaining and grumbling,
Evil of  254
Conformity of our will to
God's  12
Conformity to God's -will on
battle front  15
Conformity to God's will the
only way  12
Conformity to Jesus Crucified ,
Love makes  161
Connection between Calvary
and the Mass  62
Consolation of prayer ... 60
Contemplative prayer  122
Contrast between death of
rich and poor man  17
Conversion, Effect of Actual
Grace  27
Conversion in a London Church 22
Creation of the World  31
Criticism, Evil of  254
Crucifixion of Church in days
of Anti-Christ  242
Cure d'Ars and a vocation ... 208

D Page
Danger from human affection 90
Dangers of attachment ... 88
Darkness of night of passive
spirit purgation  117
Death, Corporal  234
Death, St. John of the Cross
on  234
Death, St. Catherine of Siena
on  235
Death separates  235
Death, tfncertainty of the
moment of  23S
Death of young soldier sen
tenced to be shot  236
Death-beds, Absence of fear at 236
Defects of beginners  103
Defects no occasion for
rejoicing  24
Definition does not add to
Faith  71
Degrees or states of prayer... 123
Deliverance from evil  85
Delusions of mere subjectivity 123
Desire, Passion of  100
Desires, even good, some
times to be suppressed ... 108
Desires deprive the soul of
God  107
Desires torment and darken
the soul  107
Desolation of Jesus on
Calvary  61
Desolation of the Soul ... 61
Despair, Passion of  100
Detachment as practised in
the Society of Jesus  89
Detachment, essential to
spiritual progress  87_
Detachment from persons ... 90
Detachment from smallest
trifles necessary  108
Devil, how he uses the
imagination  116
Devil's attempt to arrest
victim-life  189
Devil's direct temptation of
the soul  179
Devil's efforts to hinder mys
tical marriage  136
Difference between permanent
and transient graces of
prayer  123
Difference between state of
soul before and after con
version  103
Difficulty soul finds in ex
pressing spirit-experience.. 122
Disadvantage of riches ... 195
Disciples tum away when
Christ speaks of the Blessed
Sacrament  2J.9

INDEX

263

Page
Discipline, Decline of, in
Beligion  204
Discipline essential in Army
and in Eeligion  200
Discipline easy, The decline
of  204
Discipline in the Army and
in Eeligion  200
Discretion, St. Benedict on... 212
Disillusionment  6
Dives and Lazarus, The
deaths of  237
Divine action on soul, de
scribed by St. John of the
Cross  119
Divisions of religious life ... 191
Double work of Holy Ghost
in the Soul  21
Dress, Importance of proper
care of, in Army and in
Eeligion  203

E

Earthly lovers only satisfied
by face to face vision ... 245
Ecstasy, Difference between
rapture and  134
Ecstasy of face to face meet
ing  245
Ecstasy, The soul's experi
ence in  134
Effects of our acts go on after
death  540
Effects of prayer of recol
lection  125
Effects of simple union on
the soul  135
Effect of sin  45
End of man God's glory ... 4
Esprit de corps at the front 203
Esprit de corps in religion... 203
Esprit de corps flourishes best
amidst hardship  204
Essential glory of Heaven
the vision of God  249
Eternal character of the Sac
rifice of the Mass  226
Everything to be done for
God's glory alone  9
Evident, The unity of the
Church externally  65
Experience of time must
accord with dogmatic faith 123
Expiation, The work of ... 230
External unity the ' evidence
to the world  65
Extraordinary graces of mys
tical experience  143

F Page
Face to face vision of God ... 244
Faith of Church always one 66
Faith of Church unchanged
through the ages  71
Faith, Soul walks by faith
alone in dark night  113
Faith, Temptation against ... 179
Faith same for wise and
foolish  66
Fall of angels  41
Fall of angels without re
demption  41
Fall of man  43
Pearfulnesa  83
Fire, Wood cast on the  120
First days of conversion,
Sweetness of  102
First miracle of Jesua  166
First reception of the Blessed
Sacrament  220
First revelation of the Blessed
Saorament  218
First step in humility not to
seek human praise  206
Five senses, The  93
Pore-seeing, God's  10
Forgive, How we must ... 59
Forgiveness of Calvary ... 59
Forgetfulness of forgiveness
during the war  60
Forgiveness  83
Forgiveness of injuries ... 84
Forgiveness on the battle
front  84
Formal intellectual voice ... 150
Forms not needed in private
prayer  78
Forsakes all sensible sweet
ness of death, The soul ... 114
Friends of the bridegroom... 166
Froyennes, Intervention of
Soeur Thdr^se at  171

G
Gemma Galgani, Victim-life
of  186
Ghost, Holy, Working to-day 28
Giver, Love looks not at the
gift but at the  164
Gladness, Eeason for  213
Glory of God our only end ... 8
Glory, The Light of  244
God alone to whom we may
be attached  91
God, ever unchanging  8
God calls some early and
some late ... .,  229
God foresees all things ... 10
God our Judge  239

264

INDEX

Page
God speaks through children 29
God's care of us  18
God's Will the one desire of
the soul  108
Good people's hatred  56
Good people shocked at God's
choice  193
Goodness natural and super
natural  46
Grace, Actual  25
Grace a free gift  21
Grace, Habitual  25
Grace, the only means to
attain our end  20

H
Habit, Importance and value
of the religious  201
Habitual grace  25
Happiness, No created thing
can give lasting  5
Hardness, None in the sainte,
only pity  '.. 164
Hatred, The passion of ... 98
Health, Devil very interested
in our  178
Health, Undue care of  178
Hearing, Necessity of morti
fying the sense of  95
Hearing, Sense of  95
Heart must be emptied of
creatures that God may
fill it  107
Heaven and Hell, The great
alternative  243
Heaven the end of exile ... 250
Heaven the face-to-face vision
of God  244
Heaven the possession of God 248
Heaven, Euysbroeck on ... 244
Hell, Those who go to  243
HeU, Eternity and existence
of  243
Hidden life of Jesus  53
Hidden life of the cloister... 53
Hope, The passion of ... 100
Human communication. Diffi
culty of  36
Human happiness. Uncer
tainty of  5
Humble soul always gentle . 208
Humility of soul in passive
night, Horror of herself. &c. 118
Humility, Mistaken notions of 206
Humility is the exact truth... 206
Humility a willingness to
suffer humiliation  208
Humility to suffer humilia
tion with joy  209

Page
Humility heedless of man's
praise  209
Hylton, Walter, on the fiye
senses  93

Ignatius, St., Conversion of. 26
Imagination emptied of
images  106
Imagination, Necessity of
mortifying  97
Imaginative visions  146
Imaginative voice  148
Imperfection of the soul in
first stages of spiritual life 102
Impression, Angelic mode of 36
Impression of Spirit on soul 38
Incarnation  60
Incession  168
Inspiration of Grace, Young
priest's response to an ... 29
Inspiration of Grace, Import
ance of response to  39
Intellect, Need of mortifying 07
Intellectual visions  147
Intellectual visions, distinc
tion between uncorporeal
and corporeal  147
Intellectual voice  149
Intellectual voice, Divisions of 149
Intellectual voice, The succes
sive  149
InteUectual successive voice.
Devil can intrude into ... 149
Intellectual successive voice,
HowjBource can be discerned 149
Intercessors, The work of ... 229
Intoxication of Divine Love 128
Intoxication of Divine Love,
different effects on different
souls  128
Involuntary desires and imag
inations no harm to the soul 108

Joy in suffering  30
Joy, The passion of  99
Joy of giving  164
Joy of Heaven, God's words
to St. Catherine of Siena on
the ...  246
Joy of sacrifice  164
Judas at the first Mass ... 221
Judas, Type of all the be
trayers since  222
Judged as we have judged,
We shall be  839
Judgment follows immedi
ately on death  237

liNUEX

265

Page
Judgment, The matter of the 238
Judgment, Man's  239
Judgment, The last  240

Language of lovers 
Last days. Signs of the
Last Supper, The 
Levitation 
Liberty, The true spirit of ...
Life from death 
Light of the Holy Spirit ...
Likeness between Army and
Eeligion 
Likeness, Love makes
Liverpool, A conversion at St.
Francis Xavier's iu 
Living and loving of the soul
in God 
Living flames of love to Jesus
Longing of the soul for
Heaven 
Love of first ages of the
Church 
Love, How the Angels
Love of angels. Intensity of
Love, Always giving 
Love, The passion of 
Love grows in dark night of
passive spirit purgation...
Love, natural and super
natural 
Love, Christ's manifestation
of 
Love, how it has followed us
all our days 
Love is always giving 
Love, Ours to God 
Love passes om- gifts to the
giver 
Love consists in deeds not
words 
Love manifested in sacrifice.
Love of God manifested by
love of our neighbour ...
Love of the neighbour in
God no hindrance to the
soul  162
Love, How we are to  163
Love never surprised  163
Love is joyful in midst of
darkness  163
Love the motive of obedience 199
Love of creatures destroys
peace of soul  215
Love alone remains in Heaven 249
Love the beginning and the
end of the supernatural life 252
Lover, God is our  159

161
241 56
155
255 186 22
192132
233133
232 248
254 35
3660

117 157
158158169
159 160 160
160
162

M

Page

Magi, Faith pf  52
Man at his first creation ... 38
Man created to fill place of
rebel angels  42
Man inferior to the angels ... 42
Man, Temptation of  42
Man's double nature  38
Marriage, The soul of the
bride transformed into the
bridegroom  136
Marriage perfects the union
of the soul with God ... 136
Marriage life of the soul ... 137
Marriage life, St. John of the
Cross describes  137
Mary, Hidden life of  166
Mary, Her intervention in
the life of the Church ... 166
Mass makes all one  226
Mass, The first  221
Meditation, Soul in dark
night cannot make  109
Memory, The  98
Memory lifted up to God in
the dark night  115
Mortification of body, Neces
sity of  92
Mortifications of the battle
front  93
Mortification of the sense of
sight  94
Mother of God, on Calvary... 60
Mystery of the Blessed Sac
rament  217
Mystical experience not
limited to the cloister ... 1
Mystical Marriage  136
Mystical solitude not material
but spiritual  1
Mystical Theology mainly
experimental  122
Mystical substitution  183
Mystical substitution, Extent
of  185

N
Nativity, The  50
Natural and supernatural
affection  104
Nearness of re-union cause of
torment to the soul  129
Night of sensitive purgation 105
Night of the soul found in
darkness and dryness ... 109
Night of sensitive purgation,
Effects of  110
Night of spirit purgation ... 112
Night, Effects of passive pur
gation in dark  121

266

INDEX

O Page
Objective standard necessary
to judge subjective ex
perience  123
Obedience, The vow of ... 197
Obedience, St. Benedict on 197
Obedience in the Army ... 197
Obedience binds everywhere
and always  198
Observance, Eegular, Import
ance of  200
Obsession by evil spirit ... 168
Office, The Divme  75
One, The Church is  64
One, The Church visibly ... 65
One, The outward oneness
effect of Holy Ghost being
in her  « ... 65
Orderly Eoom  201
Organism, The Church an... 65
Original Sin, the privation of
sanctifying grace  46
Our Father, The  81

Paradox of aoul experience.. 130
Passions, Effect of ungoverned 39
Passions of the soul  99
Paul, St., Conversion of ... 27
Peace, true and false  214
Peace disturbed when the
soul turns to creatures ... 215
Peace through total aban
donment  213
Peace only found by empty
ing memory and imagination 116
Pentecost, The Apostles after 24
Perseverance in prayer ... 80
Peter, St., After Pentecost... 28
Peter, St., makes the act of
faith in the Blessed Sacra
ment  219
Pleasures blind the soul ... 21
Possession, AU earths
shadowed by possibility
of loss  245
Possession by evil spirit ... 168
Poverty, The vow of  194
Poverty, World has no use
for  194
Poverty of Bethlehem  52
Powers of the Angels  35
Prayer, Vocal and mental,
difference between  74
Prayer of Conformity  12
Prayer on the battle front... 232
Price, Keeping back part of
the  109
Pride, Temptations to  180
Priest the voice of Christ in
the Mass  225

Private prayer
Probation, Man's ...
Psalter of David ...
Public life of Jesus
Public prayer

Page
.. 75
.. 42
.. 75
.. 54
.. 75

Public and privatei prayer.
Difference between  78

Quiet, Acquired and pavssive
prayer of  126
Quiet, The prayer  126
Quiet within. Storm without
does not disturb the  126

B
Eeality in prayer ..i  78
E'OCollection, The prayer ot 124
Eecollection, St. Catherine
of Siena on interior  124
Eeconstruction, Church needs
no  66
Eecollection, Acquired and
infused  125
Eedemption comes forth of
Bethlehem  53
Eedemption from the Cloister 53
Eejection, Christ's  58
Eeligious state  190
Eestraint not hypocrisy ... 101
Eevelations  152
Eevelations to God's Saints
do not add to deposit of
faith  152
Eevelations to God's Saints
increase love of Jesus ... 152
Eevelations to be rejected if
conflicting with dogma ... 152
Eevelations of the future, of
events happening at a dis
tance  153
Eibecourt, Intervention of
Soeur Th&fese at  170
Eiches, Disadvantage of ... 195
Eiches, how they blind the
soul ...  21
Eipples on pond. Illustration
from  45
Euysbroeck on Mystical
Marriage  138

S
Sacraments, Church is one
through the  67
Sacrifice, The great  62
Sacrifice of Calvary and the
Mass  62

UNUCA

267

Page
Sacrifice of religious must be
complete  196
Sacrifice of the Mass identical
with Calvary  224
Saints  69
Saints more pitiful to
sinners than good people 69
Saints draw sinners  69
Saints, God glorified iu His 169
Sanctity, External evidence
of Church's  68
Sanctity, Teaching of Church
leads to  68
Sanctity, Church gives means
of  68
Sanctity and humility go
together  210
Satanic possession  168
Satisfaction of heart, God
alone can give  6
Secondary glory of Heaven,
sacred humanity, and the
Sainte  249
Self-knowledge found in dark
night  109
Senlis, Intervention of Soeur
Therese near  170
Senses, the five  93
.Sensitive -visions  144
Sickness, God's glory out of 16
Sight, Holy Spirit gives
supernatural  22
Sight, The sense of  94
Silence, Prayer of  127
Silence, Prayer of, noli ecstasy 127
Silence produced by beholding
God  J 127
Silence, Importance of  211
Simple Union, Prayer of ... 131
Simple Union, Experience of
the soul in  132
Simplicity in prayer  78
Sin, Fascination of  44
Sin, Blinding effect of  44
Sin blinds intellect and
weakens will  46
Sin, Effects of on Adam and
his descendants  47
Sinners in Church evidence
of the Church's sanctity... 70
SheU at Ypres, IUustration
from  127
Shepherds at Bethlehem, The 50
Sleep, Mystical, Effects of... 129
Sleep, Prayer of Mystical ... 129
Smell, Sense of  96
Soeur Th^rfeae, Intervention
on battle front  170
Soldiers' conformity to God's
Will  15

Page
Solitude, Interior, How
formed  124
Solitude, Interior, Walter
Hylton on  124
Soul, Immediate creation of
God  46
Soul must be passive during
spirit purgation  121
So-Ill can never find her rest
on earth  247
Souls called to extraordinary
missions by voices  151
Souls in purgatory  172
Souls called to victim-life
but not compelled  186
Sorrow, The passion of  99
Source of Church's unity, The
Holy Ghost the  65
Submission  42
Substantial intellectual voice 151
Substantial intellectual voice,
Attitude of soul to  151
Substitution, Mystical  183
Suffering, How to reconcile
with God's goodness ... 11
Suffering on the battlefield... 11
Sufferings of victims for the
Church  186
Speech in religion. Three
occasions of  212
Spiritism, Dangers of  168
States of contemplative prayer 123
Stigmatization  154
Stigmatization, How ex
plained  154
Strength, Holy Spirit gives
supernatural  23
Strong wiU for good or e-vil 23
Struggles between Church and
the world   72

Taste, Sense ot and need of
mortifying  96
Temptation of man  43
Temptation, Prayer against 84
Temptation lasts for aU one's
life  174
Temptation through the world 175
Temptation directly from the
Devil  179
Temptation against Faith... 179
Temptation against chastity 180
Temptation, the explanation
of the contradiction seen
in people  ... 181
Temptation of others. Victim-
souls may take the  185

268

INDEX

Page
Teresa, Sister, and the trials
of daily life  253
Terrifying temptations of the
night of the soul  110
Thirst for souls  230
Thomas Aquinas, St., Face
to face vision  244
Three-fold blindness of the
soul  21
To whom Jesus comes in the
Blessed Sacrament  223
Torment of Divine Liove,
Prayer of  129
Torment of Love, St. John
of the Cross describes ... 130
Total abandonment to God's
good pleasure  215
Touch, Sense ot ...  96
Trial of angels  41
Triple vow, Expreasion of
religious life  190
Triumph of spirit over flesh 30
Two topics of conversation —
the weather and the neigh
bour  ... 211
Tyrolese sculptor, Illustration
from  19
Tyburn and the adorers of
Jesus  227
Tyburn founded in the
blood ot martyrs  228
Tyburn the fulfilment of
prophecy  228

O
Unforgiving spirit, Fearful
result of an  165
Uniform in the Army, Value
and importance of  201
Unity ot the Church Organic 65
Unity in the Army and in
Eeligion   203
Unity, Love produces  254
Unreality in prayer  79

Vanity of Human opinion ... 207
Verge of union. Soul atanding
on the  130
Victim for the Church, St.
Catherine of Siena as ... 184
Victim sacrifices her natural
lite tor spiritual life of
others   185
Victims in union with the
Divine Victim  184

Page
Vision of Our Lady to
Eatisbonne  145
Visions  143
Visions, How good and bad
may be distinguished ... 145
Visions of the Devil to St.
Mark of Tours  145
Visions, Sensitive  144
Visions, Imaginative  146
Visions, Intellectual  147
Visions not to be sought,
even the highest  148
Visions, Satanic imitations... 148
Vocal prayer  75
Voices  148
Voices, Sensitive, imaginative
and intellectual  148

W
War, supernatural results of 11
War in Heaven  41
Warnings needless, against
bodily mortification  92
Who comes in the Blessed
Sacrament  223
Why Jesua comes in the
Blessed Sacrament  224
Why so few souls attain
Mystical Marriage  141
WiU of God. Absolute and
permissive  10
WiU ot God, Active  13
WiU of God, Passive  13
Will of God, Acceptance of.. 14
Will of God, Choice of ... 13
Will of God must be our
very life  19
Will, Grace strengthens the 23
Will to penance necessary... 93
Word, The spoken word and
the mind  74
Wonder of the Blessed Sacra
ment  222
World, Spirit of the  175
World-spirit in the cloister 176-177
World-spirit in the Church.. 176
World-spirit cause of most
astonishing falls from
grace  177
World 's notion of the Cloister 27

Ypres, Effect ot light on
ruins of  31

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