Teresa9:
This is very true, that is why it will take eternity in the Beatific Vision to love and honour, glorify and know God, we know as much as is required for faith, by gift of pure grace and nothing else allows this, but God Himself offering this insight into Himself …pure gift…all of it… and when this gift is given, to the one who it is revealed to, is not always sure what it means nor the significance or understanding of it, but that it is of God. It always impacts upon the mystics life in such a way as that soul is transformed. The mystic’s soul undergoes a purging and a purification, that allows a revelation of the mysteries of our hidden God.
God Bless you and much love and peace to you
Teresa
To be a mystic or a contemplative is not so much in the ability to suffer or go through trials but to forge a more balanced connection between our individual life and the great Eternal Life encompassing it.Those who found that road have known it simultaneously as a gift and a curse and along the Way there is that great Divine Insight which many have seen and few have expressed eloquently.
For mystics, the Beatific Vision is not an end in Itself however for those who have known its fleeting passing such as Dante,we see how imperfect we truly are in our short lives before the Eternal .
Paradiso ; Canto XXXIII
O Light Supreme, that dost so far uplift thee
From the conceits of mortals, to my mind
Of what thou didst appear re-lend a little,
And make my tongue of so great puissance,
That but a single sparkle of thy glory
It may bequeath unto the future people;
For by returning to my memory somewhat,
And by a little sounding in these verses,
More of thy victory shall be conceived!
I think the keenness of the living ray
Which I endured would have bewildered me,
If but mine eyes had been averted from it;
And I remember that I was more bold
On this account to bear, so that I joined
My aspect with the Glory Infinite.
O grace abundant, by which I presumed
To fix my sight upon the Light Eternal,
So that the seeing I consumed therein!
I saw that in its depth far down is lying
Bound up with love together in one volume,
What through the universe in leaves is scattered;
Substance, and accident, and their operations,
All interfused together in such wise
That what I speak of is one simple light.
The universal fashion of this knot
Methinks I saw, since more abundantly
In saying this I feel that I rejoice.
O how all speech is feeble and falls short
Of my conceit, and this to what I saw
Is such, 'tis not enough to call it little!
O Light Eternal, sole in thyself that dwellest,
Sole knowest thyself, and, known unto thyself
And knowing, lovest and smilest on thyself!
That circulation, which being thus conceived
Appeared in thee as a reflected light,
When somewhat contemplated by mine eyes,
Within itself, of its own very colour
Seemed to me painted with our effigy,
Wherefore my sight was all absorbed therein.
As the geometrician, who endeavours
To square the circle, and discovers not,
By taking thought, the principle he wants,
Even such was I at that new apparition;
I wished to see how the image to the circle
Conformed itself, and how it there finds place;
But my own wings were not enough for this,
Had it not been that then my mind there smote
A flash of lightning, wherein came its wish.
Here vigour failed the lofty fantasy:
But now was turning my desire and will,
Even as a wheel that equally is moved,
The Love which moves the sun and the other stars.
Dante
