contemplativeI want to quote something I read today in the treatise "The Roads To Zion Mourn" by Hugh of Balma on the Christian life.
"33. Note, however, that this wisdom is understood in one manner by those who have made progress and in another manner of those who are perfected. Those making progress must cleanse themselves in the cleansing path described above. Somewhat later, as they cogitate, they encounter God himself inflaming them from on high. They encounter him, not by meditating on God or on the angels, but by surging up as they stick to the path that directly follows on the purgative path, that is, according to the second, shorter exposition of the Lord's Prayer given earlier (via illuminativa), par. 45-54), which is a prayer made in spirit and in truth. After the affectus has exerted itself for a long time, after the mind has carefully raised itself in cogitation in the manner described earlier, it dismisses cogitation and meditation, and, aspiring to union with the Beloved himself by yearning love alone, as often as it wishes, day or by night, inwardly or outwardly, the surging mind [animus] lifts itself upward. Now we find love's affection preceding cogitation, for what the affectus feels, the intellect truly understands." pg. 164 Hugh of Balma
I have to close to go make coffee for my wife. I hope to write more later this evening.
