Being in ecstasy

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To experience an ecstasy, I know you must be of deep faith and good spiritual health. It’s a privilege beyond all privileges, and I think only a Saint can experience it, BUT, do you have to be in a state of grace to have ecstasy? One would presume so, but I want a definite answer.
 
In ecstacy, which I believe is equivalent to St. Teresa’s “Prayer of Union,” indeed, the soul is in the state of grace - a rather advanced state, to be more specific. The gift is God’s to bestow when He wills, usually upon souls who have already received supernatural gifts of recollection and the “Prayer of Quiet.” It is a more advanced gift that sometimes follows these earlier infused gifts.

In all humility, we ought not to ask God for this gift, if that is the underlying meaning of your post.
 
LoyalViews said:
To experience an ecstasy, I know you must be of deep faith and good spiritual health. It’s a privilege beyond all privileges, and I think only a Saint can experience it, BUT, do you have to be in a state of grace to have ecstasy? One would presume so, but I want a definite answer.
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this is an infused gift from God given to those he choses, at the time he choses, and for the reasons he choses. In no way can it be earned, manipulated or attained by any technique. If it should happen, or if you think it is happening the best advice you will get from mystics like Teresa of Avila who did have such experiences is to ignore it, or take it to your spiritual director. In no way is it, by itself, a measure of holiness or personal sanctity.
 
LoyalViews said:
To experience an ecstasy, I know you must be of deep faith and good spiritual health. It’s a privilege beyond all privileges, and I think only a Saint can experience it, BUT, do you have to be in a state of grace to have ecstasy? One would presume so, but I want a definite answer.
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To be in ecstasy is to acknowledge one’s own state of grace.
 
It is important to note the difference in those extraordinary spiritual apprehensions that God bestows upon us, such as visions and locutions. These, as Puzzleannie said, are to be set aside, but I do make this exception with regard to those infused gifts that are bestowed principally on the spirit. This is a most sublime teaching!

Book III, Chapter 13, Ascent of Mt. Carmel Section 6.
  1. And in this case the soul will make account, not of feelings of sweetness or delight, nor of figures, but of the feelings of love which they cause it. And with this sole end in view it may at times recall that image and apprehension caused it by love, in order to set the spirit on its course of love. For, though the effect of that apprehension be not so great afterwards, when it is recalled, as it was on the first occasion when it was communicated,** yet, when it is recalled, love is renewed, and the mind is lifted up to God,** especially when the recollection is of certain figures, images or feelings which are supernatural, and are wont to be sealed and imprinted upon the soul in such a way that they continue for a long time – **some of them, indeed, never leave the soul. **
And those that are thus sealed upon the soul produce in it Divine effects of love, sweetness, light and so forth, on almost every occasion when the soul returns to them, sometimes more so and sometimes less; for it was to this end that they were impressed upon it. And thus this is a great favour for the soul on which God bestows it, for it is as though it had within itself a mine of blessings.
 
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