November 21, 2005 

"Without Words"

In the Unitive Way of transforming union, the soul is receiving wonderful knowledge of God.  The soul can be very absorbed in God without words because the higher faculties of the soul are drawn to the center of one's being.  The very center of one's being is where the Trinity dwells.  The soul is now aware of the indwelling.  That's why it can practice, you might say, the presence of God all the time.  It is aware that God never leaves it.  "I am with you always."  All of a sudden, these words are very true.  The soul believes them because the soul is experiencing them.  The soul at this stage is almost never without this awareness.  It is a very intimate union, and it permits an immense peace.  There are times where Jesus will share His joy.  There can be times of tremendous sorrow because your heart is united with the heart of Jesus, but there is peace because you are in God's perfect will.  There are times when Jesus will share His pain, His sorrow and His concern.  You're going to pick up that heartbeat.  It is not always just love and kindness.  You are going to pick up His emotions because it comes from the heart.  He said that the thoughts of His heart are for all generations and He wants us, especially intercessors, to know His feelings on different things.

There can be great forgetfulness of self at this stage simply because one has made a passover into another level of prayer.  The soul is so loved by God, so drawn by God, and is experiencing God's generosity that it is almost taken out of itself at this time.

Another fruit of this Unitive Way is that there is a great desire to suffer in imitation of Jesus.  We see this after Pentecost when the Apostles would come out rejoicing and praising God after having been whipped or rejected and all sorts of things. Really, how could they do that?  If somebody looks at us cross-eyed we get our feelings hurt.  How do people endure this kind of persecution and come out of it with such joy?  It is because of this tremendous love they are receiving from God, and they want to be like Him.  Love wants to imitate.

There is perfect calm at this stage.  It is impossible to ruffle a soul here.  No matter what the interior strains are, the soul at this stage, is going to deal with them quite differently than in the other stages.  There will be a phenomenal peace that nothing can take away because you are united with Jesus, who is the Prince of Peace Himself.

There are degrees of transforming union.  They probably vary so that we will never get complacent and think, "Oh, I can rest here forever now until I'm called home to heaven because I've made it."  No, there are always degrees.  Each degree, though, does require perfect charity toward God and neighbor - perfect charity as far as our capacity allows at this level to receive love.  The highest level of this kind of union is spiritual marriage itself.  This is why God's perfect order, His perfect plan for our sanctification, is that we become purified here on earth.  St. John of the Cross said that interior souls would reach this state if we did not flee from the trials God sends us for our purification.  Instead of kicking against the goad, trying to change things, trying to run things in such subtle ways, or by complaining to God - if we can take it right to the heart of the Lord and let Him know what the problem is, how I'm feeling, get it out into the open, particularly in your journal, and deal with it, then we can let God address it and share with us what He wants to do with the situation or what He wants to do with us.  When this happens, we can pass through these trials ever so much more quickly according to John of the Cross. 

Transforming Union is a grace that we need to desire.  It is a grace.  It is part of His eternal gift to us, and it only comes from Him.  This union needs to be the goal of our life because this is what heaven is all about.  Heaven can begin here if we are willing to embark on the road.  It doesn't happen by chance.  It doesn't happen by accident.  St. John of the Cross tell us that in heaven the will of the soul is not destroyed.  It is intimately united with the love power of God's will that it loves Him as strongly and as perfectly as it is loved by Him.  If the soul in transforming union is united with God, then the will of both of them are one.  So the more open we are to receiving God's love, the more God will pour His love in.  We want to be as open as we can be so we will get more and more of that here and now.  The spiritual marriage is simply a state of union of love.  It is the state of perfect love, where the soul is really absorbed by God.  The soul could be absorbed by God by the simple act of seeing a newborn baby.  It could be absorbed by God in just catching a sunrise or a sunset.  It can be absorbed by God in anything that, all of a sudden, makes you realize, "It is the Lord.  It is the Lord."  Contemplatives will know "it's the Lord" because God is revealing that to them.

We want all self-love to be driven out.  We want to be purified here so our capacity can be filled here.  Theologians tell us that wherever our capacity is when we die is where it is in heaven.  So everybody in heaven is full of God, but full at differing levels.  You can take a little thimble and fill it.  It is full but only to a thimble's capacity.  You can take a glass and fill it.  There is a lot more in there.  You can take a whole gallon container and fill it.  So whatever our capacity to receive this love is when we die, this is what our capacity will be in heaven.  It is on this earth that we grow and merit.  This helps us to want to hasten the coming of this kind of love in the Unitive Way.  God is constantly stretching us and stretching us so the container gets bigger and bigger and bigger so we can get more and more filled with God.

Excerpt from Mother Nadine's, "New Commandment," Omaha, NE, 2004.