John, Ascent of Carmel 2 1
In darkness and secure, By the secret ladder, disguised -- oh, happy chance!-- In darkness and in concealment, My house being now at rest.
´1 IN this second stanza the soul sings of the happy chance which it experiencedin stripping the spirit of all spiritual imperfections and desires for thepossession of spiritual things. This was a much greater happiness to, byreason of the greater difficulty that there is in putting to rest this houseof the spiritual part, and of being able to enter this interior darkness,which is spiritual detachment from all things, whether sensual or spiritual,and leaning on pure faith alone and an ascent thereby to God. The soul herecalls this a 'ladder,' and 'secret,' because all the rungs and parts of it(207)are secret and hidden from all sense and understanding. And thus the soulhas remained in darkness as to all light of sense and understanding, goingforth beyond all limits of nature and reason in order to ascend by this Divineladder of faith, which attains(208) and penetrates even to the heights(209)of God. The soul says that it was travelling 'disguised,' because the garmentsand vesture which it wears and its natural condition are changed into theDivine, as it ascends by faith. And it was because of this disguise thatit was not recognized or impeded, either by time or by reason or by the devil;for none of these things can harm one that journeys in faith. And not onlyso, but the soul travels in such wise concealed and hidden and is so farfrom all the deceits of the devil that in truth it journeys (as it also sayshere) 'in darkness and in concealment' -- that is to say, hidden from thedevil, to whom the light of faith is more than darkness.
2. And thus thesoul that journeys through this night, we may say, journeys in concealmentand in hiding from the devil, as will be more clearly seen hereafter. Whereforethe soul says that it went forth 'in darkness and secure'; for one that hassuch happiness as to be able to journey through the darkness of faith, takingfaith for his guide, like to one that is blind,(210) and leaving behind allnatural imaginings and spiritual reasonings, journeys very securely, as wehave said. And so the soul says furthermore that it went forth through thisspiritual night, its 'house being now at rest' -- that is to say, its spiritualand rational parts. When, therefore, the soul attains to union which is ofGod, its natural faculties are at rest, as are likewise its impulses andyearnings of the senses, in its spiritual part. For this cause the soul saysnot here that it went forth with yearnings, as in the first night of sense.For, in order to journey in the night of sense, and to strip itself of thatwhich is of sense, it needed yearnings of sense-love so that it might goforth perfectly; but, in order to put to rest the house of its spirit, itneeds no more than denial(211) of all faculties and pleasures and desiresof the spirit in pure faith. This attained, the soul is united with the Belovedin a union of simplicity and purity and love and similitude.
3. And it must be remembered that the first stanza, speaking of the sensual part, says thatthe soul went forth upon 'a dark night,' and here, speaking of the spiritualpart, it says that it went forth 'in darkness.' For the darkness of the spiritualpart is by far the greater, even as darkness is a greater obscurity thanthat of night. For, however dark a night may be, something can always beseen, but in true darkness nothing can be seen; and thus in the night ofsense there still remains some light, for the understanding and reason remain,and are not blinded. But this spiritual night, which is faith, deprives thesoul of everything, both as to understanding and as to sense. And for thiscause the soul in this night says that it was journeying 'in darkness andsecure,' which it said not in the other. For, the less the soul works withits own ability, the more securely it journeys, because it journeys morein faith. And this will be expounded at length in the course of this secondbook, wherein it will be necessary for the devout reader to proceed attentively,because there will be said herein things of great importance to the personthat is truly spiritual.(212) And, although they are somewhat obscure, someof them will pave the way to others, so that I believe they will all be quiteclearly understood.
Which begins to treat of the second part or cause of this night, which isfaith. Proves by two arguments how it is darker than the first and than thethird.
1 WE now go on to treat of the second part of this night, which is faith; thisis the wondrous means which, as we said, leads to the goal, which is God,Who, as we said,(213) is also to the soul, naturally, the third cause orpart of this night. For faith, which is the means,(214) is compared withmidnight. And thus we may say that it is darker for the soul either thanthe first part or, in a way, than the third; for the first part, which isthat of sense, is compared to the beginning of night, or the time when sensibleobjects can no longer be seen, and thus it is not so far removed from lightas is midnight. The third part, which is the period preceding the dawn, isquite close to the light of day, and it , too, therefore, is not so darkas midnight; for it is now close to the enlightenment and illumination ofthe light of day, which is compared with God. For, although it is true, ifwe speak after a natural manner, that God is as dark a night to the soulas is faith, still, when these three parts of the night are over, which arenaturally night to the soul, God begins to illumine the soul by supernaturalmeans with the ray of His Divine light; which is the beginning of the perfectunion that follows, when the third night is past, and it can thus be saidto be less dark.
2. It is likewise darker than the first night, for thisbelongs to the lower part of man, which is the sensual part, and, consequently,the more exterior; and this second part, which is of faith, belongs to thehigher part of man, which is the rational part, and, in consequence, moreinterior and more obscure, since it deprives it of the light of reason, or,to speak more clearly, blinds it;(215) and thus it is aptly compared to midnight,which is the depth of night and the darkest part thereof. 3. We have nowto prove how this second part, which is faith, is night to the spirit, evenas the first part is night to sense. And we shall then also describe thethings that are contrary to it, and how the soul must prepare itself activelyto enter it. For, concerning the passive part, which is that which God worksin it, when He brings it into that night, we shall speak in its place, whichI intend shall be the third book.
How faith is dark night to the soul. This is proved with arguments and quotationsand figures from Scripture.
1 FAITH, say the theologians, is a habit of the soul, certain and obscure.And the reason for its being an obscure habit is that it makes us believetruths revealed by God Himself, which transcend all natural light, and exceedall human understanding, beyond all proportion. Hence it follows that, forthe soul, this excessive light of faith which is given to it is thick darkness,for it overwhelms greater things and does away with small things, even asthe light of the sun overwhelms all other lights whatsoever, so that whenit shines and disables our visual faculty they appear not to be lights atall. So that it blinds it and deprives it of the sight that has been givento it, inasmuch as its light is great beyond all proportion and transcendsthe faculty of vision. Even so the light of faith, by its excessive greatness,oppresses and disables that of the understanding; for the latter, of itsown power, extends only to natural knowledge, although it has a faculty(216)for the supernatural, whenever Our Lord is pleased to give it supernaturalactivity.
2. Wherefore a man can know nothing by himself, save after a naturalmanner,(217) which is only that which he attains by means of the senses.For this cause he must have the phantasms and the forms of objects presentin themselves and in their likenesses; otherwise it cannot be, for, asphilosophers say: Ab objecto et potentia paritur notitia. That is: From theobject that is present and from the faculty, knowledge is born in the soul.Wherefore, if one should speak to a man of things which he has never beenable to understand, and whose likeness he has never seen, he would have nomore illumination from them whatever than if naught had been said of themto him. I take an example. If one should say to a man that on a certain islandthere is an animal which he has never seen, and give him no idea of the likenessof that animal, that he may compare it with others that he has seen, he willhave no more knowledge of it, or idea of its form, than he had before, howevermuch is being said to him about it. And this will be better understood byanother and a more apt example. If one should describe to a man that wasborn blind, and has never seen any colour, what is meant by a white colouror by a yellow, he would understand it but indifferently, however fully onemight describe it to him; for, as he has never seen such colours or anythinglike them by which he may judge them, only their names would remain withhim; for these he would be able to comprehend through the ear, but not theirforms or figures, since he has never seen them.
3. Even so is faith withrespect to the soul; it tells us of things which we have never seen orunderstood, nor have we seen or understood aught that resembles them, sincethere is naught that resembles them at all. And thus we have no light ofnatural knowledge concerning them, since that which we are told of them bearsno relation to any sense of ours; we know it by the ear alone, believingthat which we are taught, bringing our natural light into subjection andtreating it as if it were not.(218) For, as Saint Paul says, Fides exauditu.(219) As though he were to say: Faith is not knowledge which entersby any of the senses, but is only the consent given by the soul to that whichenters through the ear.
4. And faith far transcends even that which is indicatedby the examples given above. For not only does it give no information andknowledge, but, as we have said, it deprives us of all other informationand knowledge, and blinds us to them, so that they cannot judge it well.For other knowledge can be acquired by the light of the understanding; butthe knowledge that is of faith is acquired without the illumination of theunderstanding, which is rejected for faith; and in its own light, if thatlight be not darkened, it is lost. Wherefore Isaias said: Si non credideritis,non intelligetis.(220) That is: If ye believe not, ye shall not understand.It is clear, then, that faith is dark night for the soul, and it is in thisway that it gives it light; and the more the soul is darkened, the greateris the light that comes to it. For it is by blinding that it gives light,according to this saying of Isaias. For if ye believe not, ye shall not (hesays) have light.(221) And thus faith was foreshadowed by that cloud whichdivided the children of Israel and the Egyptians when the former were aboutto enter the Red Sea, whereof Scripture says: Erat nubes tenebrosa, et illuminansnoctem.(222) This is to say that that cloud was full of darkness and gavelight to the night.
5. A wondrous thing it is that, though it was dark, itshould give light to the night. This was said to show that faith, which isa black and dark cloud to the soul (and likewise is night, since in the presenceof faith the soul is deprived of its natural light and is blinded), can withits darkness give light and illumination to the darkness of the soul, forit was fitting that the disciples should thus be like the master. For man,who is in darkness, could not fittingly be enlightened save by other darkness,even as David teaches us, saying: Dies diei eructat verbum et nox nocti indicatscientiam.(223) Which signifies: Day unto day uttereth and aboundeth in speech,and night unto night showeth knowledge. Which, to speak more clearly, signifies:The day, which is God in bliss, where it is day to the blessed angels andsouls who are now day, communicates and reveals to them the Word, which isHis Son, that they may know Him and enjoy Him. And the night, which is faithin the Church Militant, where it is still night, shows knowledge is nightto the Church, and consequently to every soul, which knowledge is night toit, since it is without clear beatific wisdom; and, in the presence of faith,it is blind as to its natural light.
6. So that which is to be inferred fromthis that faith, because it is dark night, gives light to the soul, whichis in darkness, that there may come to be fulfilled that which David likewisesays to this purpose, in these works: Et nox illuminatio mea in deliciismeis.(224) Which signifies: the night will be illumination in my delights.Which is as much as to say: In the delights of my pure contemplation andunion with God, the night of faith shall be my guide. Wherein he gives itclearly to be understood that the soul must be in darkness in order to havelight for this road.
Treats in general of how the soul likewise must be in darkness, in so faras this rests with itself, to the end that it may be effectively guided byfaith to the highest contemplation.
1 IT is now, I think, becoming clear how faith is dark night to the soul, andhow the soul likewise must be dark, or in darkness as to its own light sothat it may allow itself to be guided by faith to this high goal of union.But, in order that the soul may be able to do this, it will now be well tocontinue describing, in somewhat greater detail, this darkness which it musthave, in order that it may enter into this abyss of faith. And thus in thischapter I shall speak of it in a general way; and hereafter, with the Divinefavour, I shall continue to describe more minutely the way in which the soulis to conduct itself that it may neither stray therein nor impede this guide.
2. I say, then, that the soul, in order to be effectively guided to thisstate by faith, must not only be in darkness with respect to that part thatconcerns the creatures and temporal things, which is the sensual and thelower part (whereof we have already treated), but that likewise it must beblinded and darkened according to the part which has respect to God and tospiritual things, which is the rational and higher part, whereof we are nowtreating. For, in order that one may attain supernatural transformation,it is clear that he must be plunged into darkness and carried far away fromall contained in his nature that is sensual and rational. For the wordsupernatural means that which soars above the natural self; the natural self,therefore, remains beneath it. For, although this transformation and unionis something that cannot be comprehended by human ability and sense, thesoul must completely and voluntarily void itself of all that can enter intoit, whether from above or from below -- I mean according to the affectionand will -- so far as this rests with itself. For who shall prevent God fromdoing that which He will in the soul that is resigned, annihilated and detached?But the soul must be voided of all such things as can enter its capacity,so that, however many supernatural experiences it may have, it will everremain as it were detached from them and in darkness. It must be like toa blind man, leaning upon dark faith, taking it for guide and light, andleaning upon none of the things that he understands, experiences, feels andimagines. For all these are darkness, which will cause him to stray; andfaith is above all that he understands and experiences and feels and imagines.And, if he be not blinded as to this, and remain not in total darkness, heattains not to that which is greater -- namely, that which is taught by faith.
3. A blind man, if he be not quite blind, refuses to be led by a guide; and,since he sees a little, he thinks it better to go in whatever happens tobe the direction which he can distinguish, because he sees none better; andthus he can lead astray a guide who sees more than he, for after all it isfor him to say where he shall go rather than for the guide. In the same waya soul may lean upon any knowledge of its own, or any feeling or experienceof God, yet, however great this may be, it is very little and far differentfrom what God is; and, in going along this road, a soul is easily led astray,or brought to a standstill, because it will not remain in faith like onethat is blind, and faith is its true guide.
4. It is this that was meantby Saint Paul when he said: Accedentem ad Deum oportet credere quod est.(225)Which signifies: He that would journey towards union with God must needsbelieve in His Being. As though he had said: He that would attain to beingjoined in a union with God must not walk by understanding, neither lean uponexperience or feeling or imagination, but he must believe in His being, whichis not perceptible to the understanding, neither to the desire nor to theimagination nor to any other sense, neither can it be known in this lifeat all. Yea, in this life, the highest thing that can be felt and experiencedconcerning God is infinitely remote from God and from the pure possessionof Him. Isaias and Saint Paul say: Nec oculus vidit, nec auris audivit, necin cor hominis ascendit, qua praeparavit Deus iis, qui diligunt illum.(226)Which signifies: That which God hath prepared for them that love Him neithereye hath seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart or thoughtof man. So, however much the soul aspires to be perfectly united throughgrace in this life with that to which it will be united through glory inthe next (which, as Saint Paul here says, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,neither hath it entered into the heart of man in the flesh), it is clearthat, in order perfectly to attain to union in this life through grace andthrough love, a soul must be in darkness with respect to all that can enterthrough the eye, and to all that can be received through the ear, and canbe imagined with the fancy, and understood with the heart, which here signifiesthe soul. And thus a soul is greatly impeded from reaching this high estateof union with God when it clings to any understanding or feeling or imaginationor appearance or will or manner of its own, or to any other act or to anythingof its own, and cannot detach and strip itself of all these. For, as we say,the goal which it seeks lies beyond all this, yea, beyond even the highestthing that can be known or experienced; and thus a soul must pass beyondeverything to unknowing.
5. Wherefore, upon this road, to enter upon theroad is to leave the road; or, to express it better, it is to pass on tothe goal and to leave one's own way,(227) and to enter upon that which hasno way, which is God. For the soul that attains to this state has no longerany ways or methods, still less is it attached to ways and methods, or iscapable of being attached to them. I mean ways of understanding, or ofperception, or of feeling. Nevertheless it has within itself all ways, afterthe way of one that possesses nothing, yet possesses all things.(228) For,if it have courage to pass beyond its natural limitations, both interiorlyand exteriorly, it enters within the limits of the supernatural, which hasno way, yet in substance has all ways. Hence for the soul to arrive at theselimits is for it to leave these limits, in each case going forth out of itselfa great way, from this lowly state to that which is high above all others.
6. Wherefore, passing beyond all that can be known and understood, bothspiritually and naturally, the soul will desire with all desire to come tothat which in this life cannot be known, neither can enter into its heart.And, leaving behind all that it experiences and feels, both temporally andspiritually, and all that it is able to experience and feel in this life,it will desire with all desire to come to that which surpasses all feelingand experience. And, in order to be free and void to that end, it must inno wise lay hold upon that which it receives, either spiritually or sensually,within itself(229) (as we shall explain presently, when we treat this indetail), considering it all to be of much less account. For the more emphasisthe soul lays upon what it understands, experiences and imagines, and themore it esteems this, whether it be spiritual or no, the more it loses ofthe supreme good, and the more it is hindered from attaining thereto. Andthe less it thinks of what it may have, however much this be, in comparisonwith the highest good, the more it dwells upon that good and esteems it,and, consequently, the more nearly it approaches it. And in this wise thesoul approaches a great way towards union, in darkness, by means of faith,which is likewise dark, and in this wise faith wondrously illumines it. Itis certain that, if the soul should desire to see, it would be in darknessmuch more quickly, with respect to God, than would one who opens his eyesto look upon the great brightness of the sun.
7. Wherefore, by blinding itselfin its faculties upon this road, the soul will see the light, even as theSaviour says in the Gospel, in this wise: In judicium veni in hunc mundum:ut qui non vident, videant, et qui vident, caeci fiant.(230) That is: I amcome into this world for judgment; that they which see not may see, and thatthey which see may become blind. This, as it will be supposed, is to beunderstood of this spiritual road, where the soul that is in darkness, andis blinded as regards all its natural and proper lights, will see supernaturally;and the soul that would depend upon any light of its own will become theblinder and will halt upon the road to union.
8. And, that we may proceedwith less confusion, I think it will be necessary to describe, in the followingchapter, the nature of this that we call union of the soul with God; for,when this is understood, that which we shall say hereafter will become muchclearer. And so I think the treatment of this union comes well at this point,as in its proper place. For, although the thread of that which we are expoundingis interrupted thereby, this is not done without a reason, since it servesto illustrate in this place the very thing that is being described. The chapterwhich follows, then, will be a parenthetical one, placed, as it were, betweenthe two terms of an enthymeme, since we shall afterwards have to treat indetail of the three faculties of the soul, with respect to the three logicalvirtues, in relation to this second night.
Wherein is described what is meant by union of the soul with God. A comparisonis given.(231)
1 FROM what has been said above it becomes clear to some extent what we meanby union of the soul with God; what we now say about it, therefore, willbe the better understood. It is not my intention here to treat of the divisionsof this union, nor of its parts, for I should never end if I were to beginnow to explain what is the nature of union of the understanding, and whatis that of union according to the will, and likewise according to the memory;and likewise what is transitory and what permanent in the union of the saidfaculties; and then what is meant by total union, transitory and permanent,with regard to the said faculties all together. All this we shall treat graduallyin our discourse -- speaking first of one and then of another. But here thisis not to the point in order to describe what we have to say concerning them;it will be explained much more fittingly in its place, when we shall againbe treating the same matter, and shall have a striking illustration to addto the present explanation, so that everything will then be considered andexplained and we shall judge of it better.
2. Here I treat only of this permanentand total union according to the substance of the soul and its facultieswith respect to the obscure habit of union: for with respect to the act,we shall explain later, with the Divine favour, how there can be no permanentunion in the faculties, in this life, but a transitory union only.
3. In order, then, to understand what is meant by this union whereof we are treating,it must be known that God dwells and is present substantially in every soul,even in that of the greatest sinner in the world. And this kind of unionis ever wrought between God and all the creatures, for in it He is preservingtheir being: if union of this kind were to fail them, they would at oncebecome annihilated and would cease to be. And so, when we speak of unionof the soul with God, we speak not of this substantial union which is continuallybeing wrought, but of the union and transformation of the soul with God,which is not being wrought continually, but only when there is produced thatlikeness that comes from love; we shall therefore term this the union oflikeness, even as that other union is called substantial or essential. Theformer is natural, the latter supernatural. And the latter comes to passwhen the two wills -- namely that of the soul and that of God -- are conformedtogether in one, and there is naught in the one that repugnant to the other.And thus, when the soul rids itself totally of that which is repugnant tothe Divine will and conforms not with it, it is transformed in God throughlove.
4. This is to be understood of that which is repugnant, not only inaction, but likewise in habit, so that not only must the voluntary acts ofimperfection cease, but the habits of any such imperfections must be annihilated.And since no creature whatsoever, and none of its actions or abilities, canconform or can attain to that which is God, therefore must the soul be strippedof all things created, and of its own actions and abilities -- namely, ofits understanding, perception and feeling -- so that, when all that is unlikeGod and unconformed to Him is cast out, the soul may receive the likenessof God; and nothing will then remain in it that is not the will of God andit will thus be transformed in God. Wherefore, although it is true that,as we have said, God is ever in the soul, giving it, and through His presenceconserving within it, its natural being, yet He does not always communicatesupernatural being to it. For this is communicated only by love and grace,which not all souls possess; and all those that possess it have it not inthe same degree; for some have attained more degrees of love and others fewer.Wherefore God communicates Himself most to that soul that has progressedfarthest in love; namely, that has its will in closest conformity with thewill of God. And the soul that has attained complete conformity and likenessof will is totally united and transformed in God supernaturally. Wherefore,as has already been explained, the more completely a soul is wrapped up in(232)the creatures and in its own abilities, by habit and affection, the lesspreparation it has for such union; for it gives not God a complete opportunityto transform it supernaturally. The soul, then, needs only to strip itselfof these natural dissimilarities and contrarieties, so that God, Who iscommunicating Himself naturally to it, according to the course of nature,may communicate Himself to it supernaturally, by means of grace.
5. And it is this that Saint John desired to explain when he said: Qui non ex sanguinibus,neque ex voluntate carnis, neque ex voluntate viri, sed ex Deo nati sunt.(233)As though he had said: He gave power to be sons of God -- that is, to betransformed in God -- only to those who are born, not of blood -- that is,not of natural constitution and temperament -- neither of the will of theflesh -- that is, of the free will of natural capacity and ability -- stillless of the will of man -- wherein is included every way and manner of judgingand comprehending with the understanding. He gave power to none of theseto become sons of God, but only to those that are born of God -- that is,to those who, being born again through grace, and dying first of all toeverything that is of the old man, are raised above themselves to thesupernatural, and receive from God this rebirth and adoption, which transcendsall that can be imagined. For, as Saint John himself says elsewhere: Nisiquis renatus fuerit ex aqua, et Spiritu Sancto, non potest videre regnumDei.(234) This signifies: He that is not born again in the Holy Spirit willnot be able to see this kingdom of God, which is the state of perfection;and to be born again in the Holy Spirit in this life is to have a soul mostlike to God in purity, having in itself no admixture of imperfection, sothat pure transformation can be wrought in it through participation of union,albeit not essentially.
6. In order that both these things may be the betterunderstood, let us make a comparison. A ray of sunlight is striking a window.If the window is in any way stained or misty, the sun's ray will be unableto illumine it and transform it into its own light, totally, as it wouldif it were clean of all these things, and pure; but it will illumine it toa lesser degree, in proportion as it is less free from those mists and stains;and will do so to a greater degree, in proportion as it is cleaner from them,and this will not be because of the sun's ray, but because of itself; somuch so that, if it be wholly pure and clean, the ray of sunlight will transformit and illumine it in such wise that it will itself seem to be a ray andwill give the same light as the ray. Although in reality the window has anature distinct from that of the ray itself, however much it may resembleit, yet we may say that that window is a ray of the sun or is light byparticipation. And the soul is like this window, whereupon is ever beating(or, to express it better, wherein is ever dwelling) this Divine light ofthe Being of God according to nature, which we have described.
7. In thus allowing God to work in it, the soul (having rid itself of every mist andstain of the creatures, which consists in having its will perfectly unitedwith that of God, for to love is to labour to detach and strip itself forGod's sake of all that is not God) is at once illumined and transformed inGod, and God communicates to it His supernatural Being, in such wise thatit appears to be God Himself, and has all that God Himself has. And thisunion comes to pass when God grants the soul this supernatural favour, thatall the things of God and the soul are one in participant transformation;and the soul seems to be God rather than a soul, and is indeed God byparticipation; although it is true that its natural being, though thustransformed, is as distinct from the Being of God as it was before, evenas the window has likewise a nature distinct from that of the ray, thoughthe ray gives it brightness.
8. This makes it clearer that the preparationof the soul for this union, as we said, is not that it should understandor perceive or feel or imagine anything, concerning either God or aught else,but that it should have purity and love -- that is, perfect resignation anddetachment from everything for God's sake alone; and, as there can be noperfect transformation if there be not perfect purity, and as the enlightenment,illumination and union of the soul with God will be according to the proportionof its purity, in greater or in less degree; yet the soul will not be perfect,as I say, if it be not wholly and perfectly(235) bright and clean.
9. This will likewise be understood by the following comparison. A picture is trulyperfect, with many and most sublime beauties and delicate and subtleilluminations, and some of its beauties are so fine and subtle that theycannot be completely realized, because of their delicacy and excellence.Fewer beauties and less delicacy will be seen in this picture by one whosevision is less clear and refined; and he whose vision is somewhat more refinedwill be able to see in it more beauties and perfections; and, if anotherperson has a vision still more refined, he will see still more perfection;and, finally, he who has the clearest and purest faculties will see the mostbeauties and perfections of all; for there is so much to see in the picturethat, however far one may attain, there will ever remain higher degrees ofattainment.
10. After the same manner we may describe the condition of thesoul with relation to God in this enlightenment or transformation. For, althoughit is true that a soul, according to its greater or lesser capacity, mayhave attained to union, yet not all do so in an equal degree, for this dependsupon what the Lord is pleased to grant to each one. It is in this way thatsouls see God in Heaven; some more, some less; but all see Him, and all arecontent, for their capacity is satisfied. 11. Wherefore, although in thislife here below we find certain souls enjoying equal peace and tranquillityin the state of perfection, and each one of them satisfied, yet some of themmay be many degrees higher than others. All, however, will be equally satisfied,because the capacity of each one is satisfied. But the soul that attainsnot to such a measure of purity as is in conformity with its capacity neverattains true peace and satisfaction, since it has not attained to the possessionof that detachment and emptiness in its faculties which is required for simpleunion.
John, Ascent of Carmel 2 1