Do take care. Locutions should always be subjected to spiritual direction if one is wise and prudent. Always and no matter what! Sometimes Satan ‘takes the long way round’ and will inspire to what all appearances are a distinct good in order that the person will have confidence in the locutions. The purpose of Satan is at a later point, when one is totally convinced that their locations are valid and true, to lead the person totally astray.
Whereas, nothing at all is loss only rich gain in subjecting oneself to an educated wise and holy spiritual director. If one is unable to find one, then to place oneself trustfully and confidently in God’s Hands and if mystical phenomena is experienced to maintain a spiritually healthy distrust of one’s own discernings re such experiences.
If one has an experience instructing one to enter monastic or religious life, then were it me, I would be sharing that experience with the vocation director or whatever experienced religious person connected to entering monastic or religious life. Theirs is the Grace to discern who is called to the life and who may not be called.
Whoever from deep within her noble and zealous heart wished to take up the cross…, let her first take up the arms necessary for such battles…: first is diligence; second, distrust of self;
third, confidence in God; fourth, memory of his passion; fifth, memory of one’s own death; sixth, memory of the glory of God; seventh and last, the authority of Holy Scripture as it gives the example of Christ Jesus in the desert.
Catherine, however, had been through hell during these troubled years of 1531–35. She speaks of six diabolical apparitions.** In three of these the devil appears as a heavenly being: the Virgin, the Crucified, and Madonna and Child**.
23 In the first, the Virgin invites her to exchange her sinful love for a virtuous one. Catherine believes that her sinful love is her tendency to question every order and arrangement given by her superior. In the second instance, the Crucified reproaches her for taking back what she has offered, that is memory, understanding and will, in order to criticise her superior; the third time, the Madonna with Child repeats the first warning about sinful love. The virtuous love the Madonna offers in exchange is blind obedience.
That in each case it was the devil in disguise who was speaking was clear only in retrospect and by the grace of God which taught Catherine that a genuine divine vision is preceded by humility and leaves the soul in peace.
Ideally, the humility which precedes mystical experiences will be also their subjection to a spiritual director and a willingness to follow through on what that spiritual director advises and in a spirit of humility and Peace of Soul, no matter what may be advised.
Mystical type phenomena experienced can be fraught with many quite grave spiritual dangers including self deception and/or that of Satan - according to St Teresa of Availa, saint, mystic and declared Doctor of The Church.
The ideal conditions for spiritual direction is personal meetings, i.e. face to face. Letters or emails might be better than nothing, but certainly very often not at all the ideal and probably especially if one is experiencing mystical type phenomena.
St Teresa of Avila
themystica.com/mystica/articles/t/teresa_of_avila_st.html
She distinguished sharply between the essence of mysticism, which is loving the contemplation of God infused by God’s own love and grace, and the tangential phenomena that may accompany the contemplative life, such as visions, audible sensations, ecstasy,
levitation, and stigmata. She, as others, believed that Satan could manipulate such phenomena to corrupt the gullible even when they come from God. St. Teresa felt that the Devil could twist such things in order to cause the individual to be more concerned with these manifestations than with their true mission of loving God entirely.
Mystical phenomena is incidental - a complete aside - and not worthy of trust unless instructed to do so by spiritual direction and spiritual direction one considers educated, wise and holy. Mystical phenomena is a complete aside to loving God and one’s neighbour for the Love of God which is prime always, at all times and under any and all conditions. In fact, St Teresa of Avila felt that mystical phenomena was God’s Way of bringing a soul back to Him - that nothing chases the soul to return completely back to God in a complete way as mystical experiences. These experiences, she felt, were sent to strengthen the weak.
But as someone else in this thread commented, an internet discussion site is not the place to make sound discernings. And I am certainly no spiritual director under the best of circumstances. Rather, what I would like to do is to share information re mystical phenomena and hopefully inspire a healthy mistrust of such unless one has a wise and holy, educated spiritual director - and then be confidently guided by such following their advice. To underscore that nothing is more important, of more value, than loving God and loving neighbour for the sake of God - this is The Gospel and Jesus.
All I know is not from me 