Ascent of Mt. Carmel - St. Patrick's Basilica

power; 470 and thus that which He says to the soul He produces substantially within it.
For it is this that David meant when he said: 'See, He will give to His voice a voice of
virtue.' 471 And even so with Abraham, when He said to him: 'Walk in My presence and
be perfect': 472 he was then perfect and walked ever in the fear of God. And this is the
power of His word in the Gospel, wherewith He healed the sick, raised the dead, etc., by
no more than a word. And after this manner He gives certain souls locutions which are
substantial; and they are of such moment and price that they are life and virtue and
incomparable good to the soul; for one of these words works greater good within the
soul than all that the soul itself has done throughout its life.
2. With respect to these words, the soul should do nothing. It should neither
desire them nor refrain from desiring them; it should neither reject them nor fear them. It
should do nothing in the way of executing what these words express, for these
substantial words are never pronounced by God in order that the soul may translate
them into action, but that He may so translate them within the soul; herein they differ
from formal and successive words. And I say that the soul must neither desire nor
refrain from desiring, since its desire is not necessary for God to translate these words
into effect, nor is it sufficient for the soul to refrain from desiring in order for the said
effect not to be produced. Let the soul rather be resigned and humble with respect to
them. It must not reject them, since the effect of these words remains substantially
within it and is full of the good which comes from God. As the soul receives this good
passively, its action is at no time of any importance. Nor should it fear any deception; for
neither the understanding nor the devil can intervene herein, nor can they succeed in
passively producing this substantial effect in the soul, in such a way that the effect and
habit of the locution may be impressed upon it, unless the soul should have given itself
to the devil by a voluntary compact, and he should have dwelt in it as its master, and
impressed upon it these effects, not of good, but of evil. Inasmuch as that soul would be
already voluntarily united to him in perversity, the devil might easily impress upon it the
effects of his sayings and words with evil intent. For we see by experience that in many
things and even upon good souls he works great violence, by means of suggestion,
making his suggestions very efficacious; and if they were evil he might work in them the
consummation of these suggestions. But he cannot leave upon a soul effects similar to
those of locutions which are good; for there is no comparison between the locutions of
the devil and those of God. The former are all as though they were not, in comparison
with the latter, neither do they produce any effect at all compared with the effect of
these. For this cause God says through Jeremias: 'What has the chaff to do with the
wheat? Are not My words perchance as fire, and as a hammer that breaketh the rock in
pieces?' 473 And thus these substantial words are greatly conducive to the union of the
soul with God; and the more interior they are, the more substantial are they, and the
greater is the profit that they bring. Happy is the soul to whom God addresses these
words. Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth. 474
470Ecclesiastes viii, 4.
471Psalm lxvii, 34 [A.V., lxviii, 33].
472Genesis xvii, 1.
473Jeremias xxiii, 28-9.
4741 Kings [A.V., 1 Samuel] iii, 10.
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