This Prayer of Quiet is Different

This is the way this prayer of quiet is different from that prayer in which the entire soul is united with God, for then the soul doesn't even go through the process of swallowing this divine food. Without its understanding how, the Lord places the milk within it. In this prayer of quiet it seems that He wants it to work a little, although so gently that it almost doesn't feel its effort. [Whoever experiences this prayer will understand clearly what I'm saying if after having read this he reflects on it carefully; and let him consider how important the matter is. If he doesn't experience the prayer, this will seem like gibberish.] That which torments the will is the intellect. The intellect doesn't cause this torment when there is union of all three faculties, for He who created them suspends them. With the joy He gives them He keeps them all occupied without their knowing or understanding how. Thus, as I say, they feel this prayer within themselves, a quiet and great contentment of the will, without being able to discern what it is specifically. Yet the soul easily discerns that it is far different from earthly satisfactions and that ruling the world with all its delights wouldn't be enough to make the soul feel that delight within itself. The delight is in the interior of the will, for the other consolations of life, it seems to me, are enjoyed in the exterior of the will, as in the outer bark, we might say. When the will sees itself in this degree of prayer so sublime (for the prayer is, as I have already said, very recognizably supernatural), it laughs at the intellect as at a fool when this intellect - or mind, to explain myself better - goes off to the more foolish things of the world. The will remains in its quietude, for the intellect will come and go. In this prayer the will is the ruler and the powerful one. It will draw the intellect after itself without your being disturbed. And if the will should desire to draw the intellect by force of arms, the strength it has against the intellect will be lost. This strength comes from eating and receiving that divine food. And neither the will or the intellect will gain anything, but both will lose. As the saying goes, whoever tries to grasp too much loses everything; this it seems to me is what will happen here. Experience will enable one to understand, for I wouldn't be surprised if to anyone who doesn't have this experience what I've said would seem very obscure and unnecessary. But I've already mentioned that with a little experience one will understand it, be able to benefit from it, and will praise the Lord because He was pleased that I managed to explain it here.

- St. Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection, 31:10