The Ascent of Mount CarmelChapter I. Of the natural apprehensions of the memory: which is to be emptied of them, that the soul,: according to that faculty, may be united with God

It is necessary to keep in mind the special object of each of these books; for otherwise the reader will be perplexed by what he reads, as he may have been by what I said about the understanding, and as he may be now by what I say of the memory, and what I have to say hereafter of the will. For when he observes, that I teach the annihilation of these powers in the matter of their operations; he will perhaps imagine, that I am destroying, and not building up, the spiritual edifice. This objection would be valid, if my purpose here was to instruct only beginners, who are to be led onwards by means of these discursive and tangible apprehensions.

But as I am teaching how to advance by contemplation to the divine union—for which end all these means, and the sensible exertion of the powers of the soul must cease and be silent, in order that God in His own way may bring that union to pass—it is necessary to release the faculties and to empty them, and to make them renounce their natural jurisdiction and operations, in order that the supernatural may fill and enlighten them; seeing that their powers cannot compass so great a matter, but rather, unless suppressed, prove a difficulty in the way. And as it is most true that the soul knoweth God, rather by what He is not, than by what He is; it follows of necessity that if we are to draw near unto Him, it must be by denying and renouncing to the uttermost all that may be denied, of our apprehensions, natural and supernatural alike. We shall, therefore, apply this process to the memory: driving it away out of its natural position and raising it above itself, that is, above all distinct knowledge and conscious comprehension, to the highest hope of God Who is incomprehensible.

2. I begin with natural knowledge. The natural knowledge of the memory is all that knowledge it can form about the objects of the five bodily senses: hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and touching, and all else of the like kind. The memory must be stripped and emptied of all this knowledge and of these forms; it must labour to destroy all sense of them, so that no impression whatever of them shall be left behind; it must forget them, and withdraw itself from them, and that as completely as if they had never entered into it. Nothing less than the annihilation of the memory as to all these forms will serve, if it is to be united with God. For that union can never take place without a total separation from these forms which are not God, for God is without form; neither is He the object of any distinct knowledge whatever, as I have said while treating of the night of the understanding.¹

3. ‘No man,’ saith our Redeemer, ‘can serve two masters,’ so the memory cannot be perfectly united with God, and at the same time with forms and distinct knowledge. And as God is without form or image, on which the memory may dwell, so when the memory is united with God—as we see by daily experience—it remains without form or figure, with the imagination suppressed, and itself absorbed in supreme felicity, in profound oblivion, remembering nothing. “The divine union expels every fancy, and shuts out all forms and knowledge; it raises the memory to that which is supernatural, leaving it in such deep forgetfulness that it must do violence to itself, if it will remember anything at all. Such at times is this forgetfulness of the memory, and suspension of the imaginative powers, because of the union of the memory with God, that time passes by unheeded, and what took place in the interval cannot be known. When the imaginative powers are held in suspense, there is no sense of pain even when pain is inflicted; for without imagination there is no sense, not even in thought, because it exists not. If God is to bring about this perfect union, memory must be severed from all acts of knowledge of which it is capable. But it is to be observed, that this suspension never occurs thus in those who are perfect, because they have attained already to the perfect union, and this suspension relates to the commencement of that State.

4. You will, perhaps, object and say: All this is very well, but the principle involves the destruction of the natural use and course of our faculties, and reduces man to the level of a brute beast, forgetful of all things, and what is worse, without reflection or recollection of his natural wants and functions. Surely God does not destroy nature, but rather perfects it; but its destruction is the natural issue of this doctrine, for man forgets all moral and rational motives, and all natural acts; he remembers nothing, because he regards not the forms and knowledge in question, which are means of remembering.

5. To this I reply: the more the memory is united to God the more it loses all distinct knowledge, and at last all such fades utterly away, when the state of perfection is reached. In the beginning, when this is going on, great forgetfulness ensues, for these forms and knowledge fall into oblivion, men neglect themselves in outward things, forgetting to eat or drink; they do not remember whether they have done or left undone a particular work, whether they have seen such. things or not, or whether such and such things have been mentioned to them; and all this because the memory is lost in God. But he who has attained to the habit of union does not forget, in this way, that which relates to moral and natural reason; he performs in much greater perfection all necessary and befitting actions, though by the ministry of forms and knowledge, in the memory, supplied in a special manner by God. In the state of union, which is a supernatural state, the memory and the other faculties fail as to their natural functions, and rise beyond their natural objects ' upwards unto God, Who is supernatural.

6. And thus, then, when the memory is transformed in God, no permanent forms or knowledge can be impressed upon it; the operations of the memory, therefore, and of the other powers in this state are, as it were, divine; God has entered into possession, by this transformation, as their absolute Lord; guides and governs them Himself divinely by His own spirit and will, as it is written, ‘He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit ;’³ and therefore the operations of the soul in the state of union are the operations of the Holy Ghost, and, consequently, divine.

7. Now, the actions of such souls only are what they ought to be, and reasonable, and not what they ought not to be: because under the influence of the Holy Ghost they know what they ought to know, are ignorant of what they ought to be ignorant, remember what they ought to remember, forget what they ought to forget, love what they ought to love, and love not that which is not God. Thus in general the first motions of the faculties of these souls are, as it were, divine. There is nothing wonderful in this, seeing that they are transformed in the divine nature.

8. I will explain my meaning by the following illustration. A person in the state of union is requested to pray for a certain individual. Now he will never remember to do what is asked of him, by reason of anything whatever remaining in his memory; but if it be right so to pray—which it will be when God shall be pleased to hear that prayer—God will then move the will and excite a desire to pray. On the other hand, if it be not the will of God to hear that prayer: let that person do what he may, he will never pray as he was requested, neither will he have any desire to do so. Sometimes God will make him pray for others, whom he never knew or heard of. This is the effect of a particular influence of God exerted over these souls, whom He directs to perform certain actions according to the disposition of His will. The actions and the prayers of such souls always attain their end.

9. So it was with the glorious Mother of God. Perfect from the first, there was no impression of created things on her soul, to turn her aside from God, or in any way to influence her; for her every movement ever proceeded from the Holy Ghost.

10. Again. A perfect man has at a given time a certain indispensable business to transact. He has no recollection whatever of it: but in some way he knows not, it will present itself to his mind, through that stirring of his memory of which I speak, at the time and in the way it ought, and that without fail. It is not only in these matters that the Holy Ghost enlightens the soul, but in many others, present, future, and distant—men knowing not how the knowledge thereof comes to them. But it comes from the divine wisdom, because they exercise themselves in knowing or apprehending nothing, which can obstruct their course. It comes to them in general, as I said in the beginning, while speaking of the Mount, so that they do all things; as it is written, ‘Wisdom, which is the worker of all things, taught me.’

11. You will say, perhaps, that the soul cannot so empty and deprive the memory of all forms and fantasies, as to reach a state so high; for there are two things to be done which are beyond the forces and abilities of man; namely, to cast what is natural aside, and touch, and unite with, the supernatural, which is the most difficult, and, in truth, impossible for mere natural strength. God, indeed, must raise it up into this supernatural state; but the soul, so far as it can, must also be in good dispositions, which it may acquire by the help which God supplies. And so when the soul rejects these forms and empties itself of them, God causes it to enter into the enjoyment of this union. When God does this, the soul is passive, as I shall explain in speaking of the passive night; and He will then bestow upon it the habit of perfect union, proportional to its good dispositions, when it shall seem to Him good to do so. I do not speak of the divine effects of the perfect union, as they relate to the understanding on the one hand, to the memory and the will on the other, in connection with this night and active purgation, for the divine union is not here complete; but I will do so in connection with the passive night, in which the soul is united with God.

12. I speak here only of the necessary means of purifying the memory, so that, so far as itself is concerned, it may enter actively upon this night and purgation. The spiritual man must observe this precaution: never to treasure up or retain in the memory anything he may see, hear, taste, touch, or smell; but to let them pass away, forgetting them, and never reflecting upon them, unless ‘when it may be necessary to do so in order to a good meditation. But this deliberate forgetfulness, and rejection of all knowledge and of forms, must never be extended to Christ and His Sacred Humanity.⁵

13. Sometimes, indeed, in the height of contemplation and pure intuition of the divinity, the soul does not remember the Sacred Humanity, because God raises the mind to this, as it were, confused and most supernatural knowledge; but for all this, studiously to forget it is by no means right, for the contemplation of the Sacred ‘Humanity and loving meditation upon it, will help us up to all good, and it is by It we shall ascend most easily to the highest state of union.

14. It is evident at once that, while all visible and bodily things ought to be forgotten, for they are a hindrance in our way, He, who for our salvation became man, is not to be accounted among them, for He is the truth, the door, and the way, and our guide unto all good.

15. Let the spiritual man, then, take this for granted. Let him aim at complete abstraction and forgetfulness; so that, as much as possible, no knowledge or form of created things—as if they existed not—shall remain in his memory, so that the memory thus emptied and free may be wholly for God, lost as it were, in holy oblivion. ©

16. If, again, doubts are raised and objections made, as before with regard to the understanding, to the effect that in this way we shall be doing nothing, losing our time and depriving ourselves of those spiritual blessings, of which the memory serves as a channel; I can but answer that I have replied to them here as I did before, and that there is no reason why I should dwell longer upon them at present. Only let us remember, that if for a time this forgetfulness of all knowledge and forms is not felt to be profitable, the spiritual man must not therefore grow wearied; for God will draw near in His own time, and that for so great a blessing we ought to wait long, and patiently persevere in hope.

17. Though it is true that we shall scarcely meet with anyone who in all things and at all times is under the direct influence of God, whose union with Him, is so continuous that his faculties are divinely directed; still there are souls, which for the most part in their operations are under the guidance of God, and these are not souls which move themselves in the sense of St. Paul, when he said that the sons of God—those who are transformed, and united in Him—‘are led by the Spirit of God,’* to accomplish divine actions in their faculties. This is nothing strange, for these operations must be divine, seeing that the union of the soul is divine.

Rom. vil. 14.