Chapter XII
Shows forth the Third Mode of true Contemplation.
HEREAFTER follows the Third Mode which belongs to the Life of Contemplation.
This Mode is called "Speculatio," that is to say, A seeing in a mirror. For indeed, the understanding of him who is contemplating is as a living mirror, whereon the Father and the Son breathe their Spirit of Truth, so that the reason may be enlightened, and may realize, in modes, forms, images, and similitudes, all truth that can be realised.
But to that Mode whereby we see the Face of God beyond and without reason, in bare understanding and in thoughts stripped of all images, neither consideration nor reasoning can attain. For just as the Eagle, King of Birds, can, with his powerful sight, gaze steadfastly on the brightness of the sun, so do the weaker eyes of the bat fail and falter in the same.
The pure and single eye of the soul, uplifted, beyond and without reason, in a bare and simple vision, sees always the Face of the Father, as do the Angels who are our Ministers; for it has before it no other image than that of God Himself.
In that moment it beholds God and all things, so far as they are one with God, in a simple seeing, and therewith it is content; and the name of it is "Contemplatio," that is, the seeing of God in all simplicity.
And so, in like manner, the intellectual power of the soul is a living Mirror, wherein God dwells in Grace, and whereto He has given His Spirit of Truth. And, by His Light, the eye of the reason is enlightened, to recognise God and all His creatures in their forms and images and similitudes, so far as He is pleased to manifest them. And the Spirit of God commands the reason, which It has enlightened, to order and govern the life of the senses after His Law and the ordinances of His Holy Church, in love and true discretion.
In the second place, he who has understanding and who has received from God the spirit of truth, shall walk before the Face of Our Lord, ruling and adorning his inward life with every virtue, according to the beloved will of God. And so may he hear that gentle voice of the Father, speaking in his spirit, and saying: "Look to Me; know Me as I know you. Behold Me from very close, What I am and Who I am."
At this invitation the soul and all the inward powers rejoice; and she desires, at the urging and inviting of God, to see with the eyes of her understanding opened and enlightened.
And then He shows Himself to the soul in the living Mirror of her intelligence, not as He is in His Nature, but in images and similitudes, and in the degree in which the enlightened reason can grasp and understand Him. And the wise reason, enlightened by God, sees clearly and without error, in images of the understanding, all that which she has heard of God, of faith, and of all truth, according to her desiring. But that Image which is God Himself, although It is held before her, she cannot comprehend, for the eyes of her understanding must fail before that Incomparable Light.
Yet because she is made wise by the spirit of Truth, so does she see God in the images of her understanding as power, truth, justice, goodness, and mercy, compassion, abundance, and loving-kindness 28 , living faithfulness, consolation, and sweetness. She sees also the distinction of the Persons, that Each is God and Each alike Almighty in natural power, Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, in Their nature fruitfulness and in Their essence pure repose, Each Person God, and the Godhead in Their Common Substance.
For the reason, which is enlightened by the Spirit of Truth, sees God in her mirror in as many modes, forms, and images as she can imagine, and in all the ways that she desires.
And now this power of the understanding is invited and urged by God to see What and Who He is. And therefore cries the contemplating soul: "Lord, show us Your Face above images and similitudes, uncovered and unveiled; so shall we be blessed indeed, and it shall be sufficient for us."
And as the Spirit of Our Lord answers the enlightened reason, and says, " Behold Me, Who and What I am,the eye of the understanding is strengthened to see all that it desires, whereto it has been urged of God. That simple eye, with clear gaze in the Divine Light, sees plainly all that is God, and follows after Him, in her desire to know and to conceive Therein What and Who God is. But before the Face of Our Lord the reason, with all her considerations and distinctions, fails. And this power of the understanding is uplifted into that which is beyond all Modes, and its Seeing is modeless, being without manner, and it is neither thus nor thus, neither here nor there; for That, Which has no Mode, has enveloped all, and the vision is made high and wide.
It knows not, itself, where that is, which it sees, and it cannot come thereat; for its Seeing is modeless, and passes on beyond, forever and without return.
That which it apprehends, it cannot realise in full, nor wholly attain, for its apprehension is modeless and without manner, and therefore is it apprehended of God in a higher way than it can apprehend Him.
Lo, such a following of the way which is modeless, is intermediary between Contemplation in images and similitudes of the understanding, and unveiled Contemplation beyond all images, in the Light of God.