ON THE UNION OF THE SOUL WITH GOD

There are three kinds of spiritual union: The first is habitual, the second is virtual, and the third is actual, i.e., accomplished in the present.

First.   Habitual union is when we are united to God solely by grace.

Second.   Virtual union is when we have begun to unite ourselves to God and we remain united with Him as long as we continue our efforts.

Third.   Actual union — present, sustained, ongoing union — is the most perfect of the three. As it is wholly spiritual, its action can be felt within the soul because the soul is not asleep, as it is in the case of the other two unions. On the contrary, it finds itself powerfully excited. Its actions are more lively than those of a fire, more luminous than a sun unobscured by clouds. We must be careful not to be deceived into thinking that this union is a simple expression of the heart, as in saying, "My God, I love You with all my heart," or other similar words. No, this union is something indefinable that is found in a gentle, peaceable, spiritual, reverent, humble, loving and utterly simple soul. This "undefinable something" raises the soul and presses it to love God, to worship Him, and yes, even to caress Him with an inexpressible tenderness known only to those who experience it.

Fourth.   All who aspire to union with God should know that everything that can delight the will and is pleasant and delicious to it serves to further this union.

We must all acknowledge that it is impossible for our human minds to understand God. In order to unite ourselves to Him, we must deprive our wills of every kind of spiritual and bodily pleasure, so that being thus freed, we can love God in our wills above all things. For if the will can in some way understand God, it can only be through love. There is a great deal of difference between the feelings of the will and the operation of the will, since the feelings of the will come to an end in the soul, whereas the operation of the will, which is the expression of true love, ends up at God.