Salesian Literature

Chapter 9  :  How such stillness of soul is maintained

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A soul that knows stillness and tranquillity in God’s presence is like a baby at its mother’s breasts.  As that tiny creature satisfies its hunger, its little eyes begin to close, and gradually it falls asleep.  All the while, almost imperceptibly, it is still feeding – an unconscious but soothing act.  Let the mother deprive if of the breast before it is quite off to sleep … it will waken and cry its heart out, anguish and privation clearly pointing to extreme sweetness of possession.

 

What is there, Theotimus, can you tell me, to disquiet a soul recollected in God? Surely it has every reason for being still, and at peace.  What is lacking?  It has found the one it was looking for, so that all there is left for it to say is: I have found him, so tenderly loved; and now that he is mine I will never leave him, never let him go (Cant. 3:4).  It has no further need of intellectual reasoning; that would be a waste of time, such perfect awareness it has of the bridegroom’s presence.  Even if he were not visible to the mind, the soul would be quite unconcerned about it, content to sense his presence in the enjoyment, the gratification, which the will gains from it.

 

Think of God’s Mother, our Lady, our Mistress, during her pregnancy: she could not see her Child; but, as she felt him in her womb, only God knows the contentment that was hers!  St. Elizabeth too, on the day of the visitation, enjoyed the effects of her Saviour’s presence in a wonderful way, though she did not see him.  Neither has the soul, in its stillness, any further need of memory; it enjoys its lover’s presence.  No need, either, of imagination; no representation, internal or external, is required of one whose presence is so clearly felt.  So that, after all, it is only the will which feeds on that gentle presence; all the other faculties remain in a state of tranquillity, charmed by the will’s delight.

 

Eternal God, when you sprinkle the perfume of your presence on our hearts – a presence more ravishing to the senses than delicious wine, sweeter than honey dripping from its comb (cf. Cant. 4:10) – then all the powers of our souls begin to experience a blissful stillness! So perfect is this peace, only the will knows any sensation.  As it were a spiritual sense of smell, it is unobtrusively engaged in savouring, without noticing it, the matchless blessing of enjoying God’s presence.

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