Just a warning . . . Sometimes it is best to just keep praying and doing what we are dong, without getting into the mystical theology of it all. As an experienced spiritual guide, formation director for religious and trained in mystical theology, I can vouche that Mystical Theology can be very dangerous if it is not applied by someone who is well versed in it.
I don’t mean dangerous as in sinful or diabolical, but dangerous to the emotional life of the individual. There are times when it is easy to confuse the emtional state of one’s mind with the spiritual state of one’s soul, because the same language is often used to describe two very different experiences, yet sometimes overlapping.
What Mother Teresa experienced was a Dark Night of the Soul, but never a state of depression. In fact, one of the qualities that she maintained throughout her years of struggle was her joy. The same happened to Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross and other saints.
If one reads Mother’s private writings one sees that she is completely consumed with love to the point that she volunteers to live in darkness for all eternity if this is Christ’s will for the salvation of souls. What she struggled with was the inability to find the words to pray, not with the ability to pray. Her prayer reached another level, the level of desire. She desired what Christ desired.
At this level the soul becomes unified with the Divine and wishes nothing other than what the Divine wishes. The struggle ceases and peace overtakes the person. The individual is at peace in darkness and without consolations. The individual learns to live in darkness knowing that he is surrounded by light. The key word here is knowlege. You simply know.
This is not a moral darkness or an emotional darkness. It is a form of blindness, such as what we experience when a bright light is shined into our eyes, like a flash of a camera. We cannot see God, because we are within his light. Therefore, one’s inner peace and silence is never disturbed.
Such a spiritual experience cannot be produced by the individual. It can only be produced by grace. It is a process through which God purifies the soul by stripping it of all consolations found in the spiritual life so that the soul exists purely through faith, love and trust.
At its onset, the individual does not understand and feels abandoned by God. Yet continues to be moved toward God. The movement toward God is proven through the perfection of charity. The deeper the person enters into the darkness the greater one’s charity toward God and neighbor, until the person reaches a point where he accepts what God gives and willingly surrenders what God takes.
As I said at the beginning, it is best not to enter into an anlysis of this type of experience without the assistance of an expert in the mystical life. Most priests are not experts in the mystical life. Mystical theology is not part of the ordinary curriculum in seminaries. It is a specialized area of study in theology.
Religious, such as friars, monks and nuns (not sisters), are usually well trained in the mystical life. It is required before they make solemn vows. They usually have five to eight years of training in the mystical life, because life in orders is oriented toward the union of the soul with God or as Vatican II called it, the Perfection of Charity (Perfectae Caritatis).
There are some lay persons who are also trained in this area and make very good spritual directors. One of them was Catherine of Siena and Francis of Assisi. Both were lay men (though Francis eventually became a Brother), both were well versed in the mystical life. Both had infused mysticisim. But there are others such as Fr. Dubey and Thomas Merton, Doctors of Mystical Theology or St. Bonaventure for those who prefer the classics. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross had both formal training and infused contemplation.
Fraternally,
JR
Prayer is all about relationship. Mother Teresa prayed as she could, not as she could not.
…although of course the mystical is not necessarily out of the ordinary type matters.