“The first degree is the opening of the soul to God: “Open to me, my beloved,” says the Bridegroom in Solomon’s Canticle. The second degree is reached when God – and here is meant the Holy Trinity – draws the soul up to himself and comes to dwell therein. God is born in the soul. Quoting from St. Agustine, Hane says that there is a re-birth when love and desire are united. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is light, love, joy, and peace. Here there is already a departure from the intellectualism of Eckhart, in the insistence on the element of love as the means through which God is born in us. The third degree is in the transformation of the soul in God. This takes place through the indwelling of light. In this light, the soul sins no more and the beauty of God is seen in such a way that the darkness of sin no longer appears. The soul becomes oblivious of everything which is not God. It walks in the light as a child of light. Gustate et videte, “Taste and see”: first, the mystical experience of God, and in its wake – illumination. First light breaks in the soul and then in this light the soul sees the source of light. But the soul must have this light before it can see. In this connection, Hane uses a figure, afterwards used by St. Teresa. ‘The soul must not try to fly before its wings are fledged.’ It must bear the yoke of Christ and feel how sweet it is, before it knows who it is who has laid the yoke upon it.”
Bl. Titus Brandsma
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