MEDITATION USING IMAGINATION, REFLECTION, AND THE SENSES

– St. John of the Cross (The Ascent of Mount Carmel)

These considerations, forms, and methods of meditation are necessary for beginners, so that their souls might be enamored and fed through the senses. They are suitable as the remote means to union with God, which most souls must use to attain their goal, and the life of holy tranquility. Yet these means must not be used in a way that involves employing them regularly, but without ever advancing, for that would mean never achieving the goal.

None of the steps on a flight of stairs has any resemblance to what you see once you reach the top. If in climbing them we don’t leave each step behind, until there are no more, or if we want to stay on one of the steps and linger, we’ll never reach the level and the peace at the top. Similarly, a person who wants to arrive at union with the Supreme Tranquility and Good in this life must climb all the steps—these are considerations, forms, and concepts—but then leave them all behind, since the steps themselves are not the same as the goal toward which they lead. This goal is God. The soul will have to empty itself of all its images, and leave this world of sense in darkness, if it is to reach divine union.