Thou shalt know that there are two sorts of Prayer, the one tender,
delightful, amicable, and
full of sentiments; the other obscure, dry, desolate, tempted, and
darksome. The first is of
Beginners, the second of Proficients, who are in the progress to
Perfection. God gives the first to
gain Souls, the second to purifie them. With the first he uses them like
Children; with the second
he begins to deal with them as with strong men.
This first Way may be called the Animal Life, and belongs to them who
go in the tract
of the sensible Devotion, which God uses to give to Beginners, to the end
that being endowed
with that small relish, as the natural man is with the sensible Object,
they may addict themselves to
the spiritual Life. The second is called the Life of men, and belongs to
those, who not minding
sensible Pleasures, fight and war against their own Passions, that they
may conquer and obtain
Perfection, the proper employment of men.
Assure thy self, that dryness or aridity is the Instrument of thy Good,
because it is
nothing else but a want of sensibility, that Remora, which puts a stop to
the flight of almost all
Spiritual Men, and makes them even draw back, and leave off Prayer: as may
be seen in many
Souls, which only persevere whilst they taste sensible Consolation.
Know that the Lord makes use of the Veil of Dryness, to the end we may
not know
what he is working in us, and so be humble; because if we felt and knew
what he is working in our
Souls, satisfaction and presumption would get in, imagining that we were
doing some good thing,
and reckoning our selves very near to God; which would be our undoing.
"The Spiritual Guide" by Miguel De Molinos
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Steve
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