Course XIV - Teaching 13: Mystical Death

Contemplation can be Shadowy or Illuminative. In fact, these divisions are arbitrary because these two states cannot be accurately determined. The soul becomes rather contemplative and remains absorbed by this holy exercise for a longer and longer time.
All perfect souls are called to Contemplation and progress in it as the go forward in their practice of virtues. Casianus says that every soul goes up during Prayer according to his purity. This inner purity moves the soul more and more away from external, worldly things, making her desire its intimate absorption and depriving the heart of any affection and the mind of any image. The lower nature remains entirely exposed; the individual recognizes the true nature of his former ties that now are totally weakened.
So, Shadowy Contemplation is the state by which the soul little by little surrenders totally to God.
In the beginning, the disciple does not remain in this state for long, and rather by fear of his human nature subconsciously refuses to remain much time in it.
The heart remains void when it feels detachment or intense dispassion.
It is called Dark Contemplation because is like true death, a deep and shadowy night, in which the soul feels alone and far from everybody. Since these high flights are not usual form the soul, it stops there, on the threshold of the infinite light, blinded by this radiance, which is shadow for the soul. Saint Dionysius the Areopagite calls it “Beam of Darkness”.
Once an advanced disciple asked his Master what exercise to adopt to achieve the void of mind that would make him fit for Contemplation. The old man replied, “Continuously think about the shroud that you shall take to your grave”.
Now mental faculties are unable to reason, and since just the pure and plain will remains there in the presence of God, the soul feels pervaded by an immense holy fear.
As the mind, clean of any thought and far from any image, experiences in an unknown darkness the fluttering of the Eternal sigh, it moves back in fright and sticks to separateness. Images reflected by the personal consciousness on the illusory screen of the individual life refuse to lose their throne and the very will quivers because naked and alone it has to travel through the path of the Absolute One.
As some people believe, this state is not only a grace granted by the Divine Consciousness that acts on the soul and brings it from the bosom of the Eternity, but also the conscious effort of the will attaining the Divine Consciousness by its own means.
But gradually the soul gets used to the Divine Presence, and Mystical Death is followed by Resurrection, and after Shadowy Contemplation there is Illuminative Contemplation.
The superior Mind that was allegorically immobile while reason and instinct prevailed manifests now by amplifying everything.
The soul is more and more blissful before the Divinity and prayer becomes more and more passive. Senses are retained and as if suspended and, by a strenuous habit, the instinctive mind with its sensations and the rational mind with these appeased vibrations enjoy by participating directly in the Divine Presence. If lower powers can participate in the effects of this illumination, they can never explain it.
This self-recognition adorns the individual being with a supra-sensitive capacity and with an extraordinary knowledge, called “Infuse Science”.
You should not believe that Illuminative Contemplation, which belongs to the Superior Mind, is the very Light; this Light is exclusively of the Spirit and of the Divine Union. But it is so close to it as if it were this Light, for Illuminative Contemplation is the bridge between soul and spirit, and leads to the Mystical Wedding.
As an example, Contemplation is a deep, wide and immense abyss of light, where no reflection of any kind can reach: it is endless and, by absorbing the soul, hides it in its luminosity, pervades it and leaves to it the great secret of knowledge and love.
When the soul, for a more or less long time, does not experience these sublime states, suffers vividly and its only desire is to feel them again and to remain there, peaceably and immutably, entirely united with God.
Those who reach this point really refuse to communicate these states to others. Since they recognize, not by pride but by logical intuition, their superiority over others, they know that none shall be able to understand them; so the souls that possess these gifts are little known, for they keep their secrets and reserve them to their Spiritual Director.
Here the secret and discretion recommended by the philosophical Schools to their disciples are totally understood. The soul keeps silence not by any imposed silence but because a internal trend transmit the great truth: the root can bear fruit when remains hidden in earth. If you leave a flask of perfume opened, its fragrance evaporates.
The soul must be able to understand the value of loneliness and faithfully to keep its sweet secret; it has to remain entirely hidden in its internal Temple with the Lonely Eternal loving One: God, who only communicates with souls that are pure and alone.