contemplativeNow our spirit and this love are both living and fruitful in virtues, and for this reason the powers cannot simply remain in the unity of the spirit. God's incomprehensible resplendence and his fathomless love hover above the spirit and from there touch the amorous power, and at this the spirit falls back into its activity, this time in a more sublime and fervent striving than ever before. The more fervent and noble the spirit, the faster will it transcend its activity and come to nought in love; then it falls back into new works. This is a heavenly way of life. In its craving, the spirit constantly intends to consume and devour God, but in fact it remains itself swallowed up in God's touch, becomes unable to proceed in all its activity, and itself becomes love above all works. In the unity of the spirit there is a union of the higher powers, and here grace and love abide essentially, above works, for this is the source of charity and all the virtues. Here there is an eternal flowing out in charity and in virtues, and an eternal movement inward marked by an interior hunger for savoring God, and an eternal abiding in simple, undifferentiated love.
All this is in a creaturely manner and beneath God. This is the most interior exercise a person can practice when enlightened by created light, whether in heaven or on earth; above this is only the contemplative life, which is lived in the divine light and after God's own manner. In this exercise a person cannot go astray or be deceived. It begins here in grace and will last eternally in glory." pg. 115, 116 "The Spiritual Espousals" by John Ruusbroec
