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====Infused or higher contemplation – mystical union==== According to Hardon, infused contemplation is "A supernatural gift by which a person's mind and will become totally centered on God. Under this influence the intellect receives special insights into things of the spirit, and the affections are extraordinarily animated with divine love. Infused contemplation assumes the free co-operation of the human will."<ref name="MCD">[http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=34205 John Hardon, ''Modern Catholic Dictionary'']</ref> According to Poulain, it is a form of [[Henosis|mystical union with God]], a union characterized by the fact that it is God, and God only, who manifests Himself.{{sfnp|Poulain|1908}} According to Poulain, mystical grace may also manifest as visions of the humanity of Christ or an angel or revelations of a future event, and include miraculous bodily phenomena sometimes observed in ecstatics.{{sfnp|Poulain|1908}} In Teresa's mysticism, infused contemplation is described as a "divinely originated, general, non-conceptual, loving awareness of God".<ref name=Dubay>[https://books.google.com/books?id=AsyveSH9P-kC&pg=PT92 Thomas Dubay, ''Fire Within''] (Ignatius Press 1989 {{ISBN|0-89870-263-1}}), chapter 5</ref> According to Dubay: {{Blockquote |It is a wordless awareness and love that we of ourselves cannot initiate or prolong. The beginnings of this contemplation are brief and frequently interrupted by distractions. The reality is so unimposing that one who lacks instruction can fail to appreciate what exactly is taking place. Initial infused prayer is so ordinary and unspectacular in the early stages that many fail to recognize it for what it is. Yet with generous people, that is, with those who try to live the whole Gospel wholeheartedly and who engage in an earnest prayer life, it is common.<ref name="Dubay"/>}} According to [[Thomas Dubay]], infused contemplation is the normal, ordinary development of [[Christian meditation|discursive prayer]] (mental prayer, meditative prayer), which it gradually replaces.<ref name="Dubay"/> Dubay considers infused contemplation as common only among "those who try to live the whole Gospel wholeheartedly and who engage in an earnest prayer life". Other writers view contemplative prayer in its infused supernatural form as far from common. [[John Baptist Scaramelli]], reacting in the 17th century against [[Quietism (Christian philosophy)|quietism]], taught that [[asceticism]] and [[Christian mysticism|mysticism]] are two distinct paths to perfection, the former being the normal, ordinary end of the Christian life, and the latter something extraordinary and very rare.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=TdaLXztTZvAC&pg=PA247 Jordan Aumann, ''Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition''] (Sheed & Ward 1985 {{ISBN|0-89870-068-X}}), p. 247 and [https://books.google.com/books?id=BgNyoRwj4VkC&pg=PA273 p. 273]</ref> Jordan Aumann considered that this idea of the two paths was "an innovation in spiritual theology and a departure from the traditional Catholic teaching".<ref>Aumann, ''Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition'', p. 248</ref> And [[Jacques Maritain]] proposed that one should not say that every mystic necessarily enjoys habitual infused contemplation in the mystical state, since the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not limited to intellectual operations.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=TdaLXztTZvAC&pg=PA276 Aumann, ''Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition''], p. 276</ref> =====The Prayer of Quiet===== For Teresa of Avila, the Prayer of Quiet is a state in which the soul experiences an extraordinary peace and rest, accompanied by delight or pleasure in contemplating [[God in Christianity|God]] as present.{{sfnp|Teresa of Ávila|p=177}}{{sfnp|Teresa of Ávila|1921|p=104}}<ref group=web>Jordan Aumann, [http://www.catholic-church.org/grace/growing/9grades/grade6.htm Grade 6: Prayer of the Quiet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191218094613/http://www.catholic-church.org/grace/growing/9grades/grade6.htm |date=18 December 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Selected writings|last=Maria de' Liguori|first=Alfonso |author-link=Alphonsus Maria de Liguori|chapter=Prayer of Quiet|editor=Frederick M. Jones|year=1999|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=0-8091-3771-2|page=176 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aTg754j-lt0C&dq=%22Prayer+of+Quiet%22&pg=RA1-PA176 }}</ref> According to Poulain, "Mystical union will be called spiritual quiet when the Divine action is still too weak to prevent distractions: in a word, when the imagination still retains a certain liberty".{{sfnp|Poulain|1908}} According to Poulain, in incomplete mystical union, or the prayer of quiet or supernatural recollection, the action of God is not strong enough to prevent distractions, and the imagination still retains a certain liberty.{{sfnp|Poulain|1908}} =====Full or semi-ecstatic union===== According to Poulain, "Mystical union will be called [...] full union when its strength is so great that the soul is fully occupied with the Divine object, whilst, on the other hand, the senses continue to act (under these conditions, by making a greater or less effort, one can cease from prayer".{{sfnp|Poulain|1908}} =====Ecstatic union===== According to Poulain, "Mystical union will be called [...] ecstasy when communications with the external world are severed or nearly so (in this event one can no longer make voluntary movement nor energy from the state at will)."{{sfnp|Poulain|1908}} =====Transforming union===== The transforming union differs from the other three specifically and not merely in intensity. According to Poulain, "It consists in the habitual consciousness of a mysterious grace which all shall possess in heaven: the anticipation of the Divine nature. The soul is conscious of the Divine assistance in its superior supernatural operations, those of the intellect and the will. Spiritual marriage differs from spiritual espousals inasmuch as the first of these states is permanent and the second only transitory."{{sfnp|Poulain|1908}}
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