Experiences

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Teresa9

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Dear friends

Has anyone one of you had any mystical experiences during or outside of prayer time?

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
Teresa,

Yes, God has been gracious to me, and through the wonderful works of St. Teresa of Avila, I have been blessed to discern what they were, not only by the description itself, but also by the effects (fruits). It has been invaluable in helping others. The only purpose one ought ever to disclose that, is to help others discern the true from the false — (that is a great gift in itself ) — and help them discover the way God is leading them.

St. Teresa felt at one time in her life that she had lost these graces, but she still had great joy in leading others to the Lord and describing the ways of prayer to them. These graces of God were not given to her in vain, in other words.

She also remarked what a wonderful good it is to find another soul who is able to understand these gifts, and it brought her a great deal of comfort. If you remember, she had a lot of discussions with those who were unlearned in mystical experiences, and did her a lot of spiritual harm. Isn’t it awesome how God managed to bring her in contact with others who were also saints?
 
Dear Joysong

Thank you for your beautiful reply to my post and you Tru Devotion.Thank you both.

What are these experiences for? Any help???

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
Hello Teresa and Tru,
What are these experiences for? Any help???
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Although I was not looking for this, but trying to find something St. Teresa wrote with respect to a type of centering prayer, this chapter was next to the one I wanted, and it happens to be a good answer to your question. Praise God who answers all our needs!

catholicfirst.com/thefaith/catholicclassics/stteresa/life/teresaofavila6.cfm#CHAPTER%20XXI
The fact is that, during one of these raptures, the Lord can work in the soul in such a way that there remains little for it to do in order to acquire perfection. For, except by experience, no one will ever believe what the Lord bestows on the soul here; no efforts of ours, in my opinion, can acquire it. I do not mean that those who work hard for many years, in the ways described by writers on prayer, following their principles and using their methods, will not, after much labour, and with the help of the Lord, attain to detachment and perfection.

But they will not do so as speedily as by means of raptures, in which the Lord works without our collaboration and draws the soul away from the earth and gives it dominion over all earthly things, although there may be no more merits in such a soul than there were in mine – and I cannot say more than that, for I had hardly any.

The reason His Majesty does this is that it is His will, and it is according as He wills that He does it; and, though the soul may not be prepared, His Majesty prepares it to receive the blessing which He is giving it. Although He most certainly never fails to comfort those who make proper preparation and strive after detachment, He does not always bestow blessings because the recipients have deserved them by cultivating their garden. It is sometimes His will, as I have said, to manifest His greatness in the worst kind of soil; He prepares it for every blessing, so that it seems almost as if it would be impossible for the soul to return to the life of sin against God which it had lived previously.
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Teresa, it seems the reason for these gifts is to quickly bring the soul to the perfection God desires of it, in order that He may achieve greater fruitfulness for His Kingdom through this person. We can arrive at a journey of 1000 miles by our own efforts of walking, or riding, but the Lord accomplishes it in us more quickly by allowing us to fly!

I need to mention that although she speaks in this chapter about raptures, we could easily substitute the other favors He grants in place of that particular word. In her writings, we learn that each of God’s gifts lift the soul into greater growth in perfection and virtue — some more, some less.

As St. Teresa noted, sometimes it is His pleasure to manifest His greatness in the worst kind of soil. Look at His gifts to St. Paul, for example. We cannot meddle in His secret designs upon man, but just give Him great praise for whatever He wills to do.
 
Teresa,

I just tried the link, and it does not go immediately to Ch. XXI, but starts at XX. The quote I gave was almost at the end of XXI.

If anyone is interested in St. Teresa’s opinion on practices akin to centering prayer, the next chapter XXII is excellent! It was this that I was seeking when I found the answer to your question … by accident? God is awesome how He provides, is He not?
 
Yes, yes, yes. It could never be from our labors. If it were, great injury would result in the human soul. So it does not make sense, certainly not human sense, in fact, from the human standpoint it is quite absurd, and so we can be certain, what we deserve is nothing, or worse, we deserve great punishment, because we have been useless servants, worthy of nothing else but reprimand. Its God’s folly really…
 
God has a habit of picking out some of the most wretched for his pleasures. Take Matthew. He was dishonest. Or Paul. He was a learned man, but not who we could call a good man, because he rejoiced when a Christian was put to death.

Why God visits such unworthy creatures? Is it because if man could say, I deserved it, it would harm him, or is it because the rest of the world would believe erroneously that he deserved it? I think this is for the sake of the world, because any association with God brings at least some recognition of man’s unworthiness. That, and because no man is really worthy. Certainly, we can have no clear understanding of ourselves or God, because we could never bear all of it, nor comprehend it with our limited human mind. More than likely, we would die from the horror at seeing ourselves for who we really are or from fright at who God really is. Grace is always tailor made for the individual otherwise it could harm the human soul.

I have problems when someone claims to have mystical experiences and begins to attract curiosity. A true mystic will not speak of his experiences, unless he is instructed by his SD, and even then it is never up to him to do that in person. Anybody announcing to have spiritual experiences is suspect, because if he had them, he would not be claiming to have had them, it would weigh on him as being all too frivolous to make such announcements to the world. But as Joy said, God will provide supports when one needs it, the friendship of some kindred soul at the right time. Any misery, misunderstanding and isolation would of course work for the ultimate good of the individual, all in accordance with God’s will.
 
This has been one interesting thread. Especially where no “Experience” was directly mentioned. Yet it is assumed by all in this thread. Interesting indeed.

In other words you are all speaking a language of which I barely understand.
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tru_dvotion:
God has a habit of picking out some of the most wretched for his pleasures.
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There is hope for me 🙂
 
Dear Tru,
Why God visits such unworthy creatures? Is it because if man could say, I deserved it, it would harm him, or is it because the rest of the world would believe erroneously that he deserved it?
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It seems good to mention here that the person who receives these encounters of God is practicing virtue, and all the mystical writers have spoken about this, as well as the scriptures. Jesus said in Jn. 14:21 that he who loves Him will keep His commandments … and He will love that person and manifest Himself to him.

The reality St. Teresa spoke of as being unworthy, is true in the respect that no person is sin-free and “deserving” of God’s favor. It is pure gift on His part to reveal Himself to man. I quote from her seventh mansion, Ch. 4, Interior Castle:
Do not, of course, for one moment imagine that, because these souls have such vehement desires and are so determined not to commit a single imperfection for anything in the world, they do not in fact commit many imperfections, and even sins. Not intentionally, it is true, for the Lord will give such persons very special aid as to this: I am referring to venial sins, for from mortal sins, as far as they know, they are free, though they are not completely proof against them; and the thought that they may commit some without knowing it will cause them no small agony.
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Our perception of the saints, even in their most advanced stage of spirituality such as the seventh mansion referred to above, is that they never commit so much as an imperfection, let alone a venial sin. I read somewhere in a work by one of the saints that humility renders the soul unconscious of its holiness, until a special moment of grace in which the Lord opens its faculties to peer within and see the great beauty the Lord has adorned it with.

For the majority of times, due to its knowing the majesty and greatness of God, the soul is keenly aware of how much better it could become, of how many omissions it has committed, how deserving the Lord is to receive more honor and glory in spite of its imperfect works and intentions, etc.

It is this immense recognition of God’s worthiness to receive more from it, that the soul refrains from mentioning any of its gifts, believing that if someone knew of it they might form a wrong idea that it is saintly, whereas it knows itself to be greatly deficient in its desires to serve God. I don’t know why it is so, but the Holy Spirit inclines the soul to keep God’s treasures hidden within and not speak of them.

You mentioned St. Paul briefly, and I would like to comment that when he had the powerful conversion experience and lost his sight, it was so far removed from the latter experience of being taken to the third heaven where he was not even sure whether or not he was in the body. This was a man who had much to suffer for the Lord, and I believe that is possibly why he was granted such an exceedingly lofty mystical experience where “eye has not seen what God has prepared for those who love him.” Had he not been fortified so greatly in this encounter, it may not have been possible in his own strength to endure the tremendous sufferings he underwent for God.

That seems to be another motive for God granting these favors — to infuse fortitude and charity to endure the cross that comes their way during their service to God.
 
In other words you are all speaking a language of which I barely understand.
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Dear Joy,

Reading your first and last post you have just proven if you really did not get what I wrote earlier, the deficiency is entirely in my inability to express myself, and would have nothing at all to do with you barely understanding. 🙂
 
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Teresa9:
Dear friends

Has anyone one of you had any mystical experiences during or outside of prayer time?

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
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Yes ,Quite often usually in the morning I see the image of Jesus Christ when I look in the mirror. 😃
 
Teresa9 said:
😃 Spokenword

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
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Thank you for your blessing. I thank God for for your sweet and loving spirit. I see that you walk in Gods Love.May the Good Lord keep you under His wings. 😉
 
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tru_dvotion:
Dear Joy,

Reading your first and last post you have just proven if you really did not get what I wrote earlier, the deficiency is entirely in my inability to express myself, and would have nothing at all to do with you barely understanding. 🙂
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No the deficiency probably lies with me. Please feel free to express anything you wish to express in any manner you wish to express it.
I have no agenda, only to grow closer to our Lord. I appreciate anything I can gain from the Faithful.
 
Dearest Tru

I have found your posts to be most informative and understandable, I have found you to be a person who the Holy Spirit speaks through and at no point have I found you hard to understand… I have learnt from you.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you and yours always xx

Teresa
 
Dearest Joysong

Thank you for all of your research and links it has been most helpful in my understanding. One more question if I can…how and why does God grant these experiences and to what purpose? is it just for the benefit of an individual soul, or is it intended for souls akin or for all souls?

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
Teresa, the more I read your posts, the more I love you.❤️ I am now looking for them. But please be kind to me, but do not be too kind to me, for it would not be good for me.
 
Dear Teresa,
Thank you for all of your research and links it has been most helpful in my understanding. One more question if I can…how and why does God grant these experiences and to what purpose? is it just for the benefit of an individual soul, or is it intended for souls akin or for all souls?
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I have asked for the help of the Holy Spirit, for I see that your question is far deeper than a simple answer would provide. One image that came to mind was something I learned when Jesus taught us about the Good Shepherd, and from this scripture, I honestly believe Our Lord intended that all souls would know Him experientially, to some degree. He assured us through this parable that His sheep hear His voice. He calls them by name and leads them forth, going before them to lead them into safety. “I know mine, and mine know Me.”

To understand this, I went to the library one day and looked up all I could find about sheep. There is a beautiful image of how the mother teaches the baby lamb to know her voice. She thrusts the little one from her, and after a short while bleats, calling the lamb to return. When the little one returns, the mother rewards it by allowing it to nurse with delight at its mother’s breast. By repeating this process – thrusting, calling it back, and allowing it to nurse – the young lamb learns to recognize the mother’s bleat and associates it with the peaceful, loving remembrance of nursing, and comes immediately.

Speaking mystically, when the Holy Spirit is teaching the soul, He often allows it to nurse with interior delight after He has sent an inspiration, and the soul responds to His voice. This might answer the “why” of your question. In a person’s early growth in spirituality, that is a common experience as they learn God’s guidance. Often the “nursing” is to confirm something that was prayed about, as St. Ignatius taught in Spiritual Exercises, the section about understanding the purpose of consolations. From the little I have read in your beautiful writings, I believe you understand this by experience also.

We know that Jesus mentioned how the growth process must begin with “first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.” Similarly, God infuses these mystical gifts according to the natural growth of the person’s spirituality and their ability to receive them. There is a divine order to the progression. To help our readers understand a little better what infused means, we can draw much from Webster’s definition. Infuse: to pour in; to cause to be permeated with something (as a principle or quality) that alters usually for the better.

That’s literally what happens. God pours Himself within us, and permeates the spirit in such a manner that the effects of it cause us to change for the better! Glory be to God!

It seems important to mention this here, lest anyone think they are forsaken by God if He does lead them in this mystical way. Many saints did not experience any extraordinary manifestations at all, yet they were canonized for their *extraordinary love of God and neighbor — *the real test of whether or not we have true union with God. I’m sure they were able to say with their lives, “I know Him, and He knows me.”

I’m not sure I have answered well enough, so if there is something I left unsaid, please feel free to ask again.
 
Joy, an important part of experiences is falling in love. The Song of Songs describes it beautifully. Although it has been interpreted to represent the Virgin Mary and the Church, it also represents the relationship of the individual soul and Christ.
 
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