THIS, then, was the prayer which was communicated to me at once, which is far above ecstasies, ravishments, visions, etc.; for all those graces are far less pure. Visions are in the powers inferior to the will, and their effect must always terminate at the will, and in the sequel they must be lost in the experience of what one sees, knows, and hears in those states; otherwise the soul would never arrive at the perfect union. What she would then have that she would even give the name of union to, would be a mediated union, and a flowing of the gifts of God into the powers; but it is not God himself; so that it is very important to prevent souls from dwelling upon visions and ecstasies, because this arrests them almost all their life; besides, those graces are very subject to illusion, for that which has form, image, and distinctness, the Devil may imitate, together with the sensible delight, but that which is detached from all images, forms, species, and above things sensible, the Devil cannot enter these. Of these kinds of gifts the less pure and perfect, and the most subject to illusion, are visions and ecstasies. Ravishments and revelations are not at all so much, although they are not a little so. The vision is never of God himself, nor almost ever of Jesus Christ, as those who have them imagine. It is an angel of light, who, according to the power which is given him by God, causes the soul to see his representation, which he himself takes. It appears to me that the apparitions that people believe to be of Jesus Christ himself are something like the sun, which paints itself in a cloud with such vivid colours, that he who does not know this secret, believes it is the sun itself, yet it is only its image. Jesus Christ in that way pictures himself in the intelligence, and those are called intellectual visions, and are the most perfect; or that is done by angels, which, being pure intelligences, may thus be imprinted, and thus show themselves. St. Francis d’Assisi, very enlightened on visions, has never attributed to Jesus Christ himself the impression of his stigmata, but to a Seraph, who, taking the appearance of Jesus Christ, impressed them upon him. The imagination impresses itself also with phantoms and holy representations. There are, further, corporal ones; both sorts are the most gross and the most subject to illusion. It is of these sorts of things St. Paul speaks when he says that the Angel of Darkness transfigures himself to an Angel of Light—a thing that ordinarily happens when one attaches importance to visions, esteems them, dwells upon them, because all these things excite vanity in the soul, or at least hinder her from running in blind faith, which is above all sight, knowledge, and light, as St. Denis explains.
Ecstasy comes from a sensible delight which is a spiritual sensuality, where the soul, letting herself go too far, in consequence of the sweetness she finds there, falls into faintness. The Devil gives this kind of sensible sweetness to entice the soul, make her hate the cross, to render her sensual, and to fill her with vanity and love of self, to arrest her at the gifts of God, and to hinder her from following Jesus Christ by renunciation and death to all things. Distinct interior utterances are also very subject to illusion. The Devil forms many of them, and, though they should be from the good angel—for God never speaks in this way—they do not always mean all that they seem to say, and very seldom does one see that happen which is in this way spoken; for when God sends this kind of message by his angels, he understands things in his way, and we take them in ours, and it is this which misleads us. The immediate utterance of God is none other than the expression of his Word in the soul—speech substantial, which has no sound or articulation; speech vivifying and operative, as it is written, “He spoke, and they are made;” speech which is never for a moment mute or fruitless; speech which never ceases in the centre of the soul when she is fitted for it, and which returns as pure to its principle as it left it; speech where there is never any mistake; speech which makes Jesus Christ become the life of the soul, since it is none other than himself as the Word; speech which has a wonderful efficacy, not only in the soul where it is received, but which communicates itself to other souls through that one, as a divine germ which makes them fructify for eternal life; speech always mute and always eloquent; speech that is none other than yourself, O my God, the Word made flesh; speech which is the kiss of the mouth, and the union, immediate and essential, that you are, infinitely elevated above those utterances that are created, limited, and intelligible.
Revelations of the future are also very dangerous, and the Devil can counterfeit them with auguries, as he once did in the heathen temples, where he rendered oracles. Even though they should be from God through the ministry of his angels, we must get beyond them, without dwelling upon them, because we do not understand what they signify, true revelations being always very obscure. A further reason is that this amuses the soul extremely, hinders her from living in total abandonment to the Divine Providence, gives false assurances and frivolous hopes, fills the mind with future things, and hinders from dying to all and passing beyond all things to follow Jesus Christ, naked, despoiled of all.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, of which St. Paul speaks, is very different from all that. It is manifested to the soul when the eternal Word is communicated to her—revelation which makes us become second Jesus Christs on earth through participation, and which brings to pass that he expresses himself in us; it is this revelation which is always true, and which the Devil cannot counterfeit.
Ravishments come from another principle. God attracts the soul powerfully to make her go out of herself and to absorb her in him; and of all the gifts I have described, it is the most perfect. But the soul being still arrested by her self-hood, she can not go out of herself, so that being attracted on the one hand, and kept back on the other, it is this which operates the ravishment, or flight of the spirit, which is more violent than ecstasy, and sometimes raises the body from the earth. However, that which men admire so extraordinarily is an imperfection and a defect in the creature.
True ravishment and perfect ecstasy are operated by total annihilation, where the soul, losing all self-hood, passes into God without effort and without violence, as into the place which is proper and natural to her. For God is the centre of the soul, and when once the soul is disengaged from the self-hood which arrested her in herself or in other creatures, she infallibly passes into God, where she dwells hidden with Jesus Christ. But this ecstasy is operated only by simple faith, death to all things created, even to the gifts of God, which, being creatures, hinder the soul from falling into the One uncreated. It is for this reason, I say, it is of great importance to make her pass beyond all his gifts, howsoever sublime they may appear, because, as long as the soul dwells in them, she does not veritably renounce herself, and so never passes into God himself, although she may be in those gifts in a very sublime manner. But resting thus in the gifts, she loses the real enjoyment of the Giver, which is an inestimable loss.
Through an inconceivable goodness, O my God, you introduced me into a state very pure, very firm, and very solid. You took possession of my will, and you there established your throne, and in order that I should not let myself aim at those gifts and withdraw myself from your love, you put me at once into a union of the powers and into a continual adherence to you. I was unable to do anything else but to love you with a love as profound as it was tranquil, which absorbed everything else. Souls that are taken this way are the most favoured, and they have a shorter road to travel. It is true when you advance them so quickly, O my God, they must expect violent crosses and cruel deaths, especially if they are from the first touched with much faith, abandonment, pure love, disinterestedness, and love of the sole interest of God alone, without any self-regard. These were the dispositions you from the first placed in me, with so vehement a desire of suffering for you, that I was quite languishing from it. I was on a sudden disgusted with all creatures; all that was not my Love was insupportable to me; the cross I had till then borne through resignation became my delight and the object of my complaisance.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MADAME GUYON 