John of the Cross, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The soul must refuse them, and the refusal takes nothing from God's gift. These visions are sent that the soul may be moved by them toward God, and not that it may admit them and set its affections upon them.1 When the soul keeps its will detached from the impressions and forms in which a communication is wrapped, it does not lose what God gives; it is the better disposed to receive it, with more clearness, freedom of spirit and singleness of mind, because the veils and shadows that hide the deeper spirituality have been cast aside.2
If it feeds on the outer covering, sense and spirit are so filled that the substance within cannot be communicated to it, for the understanding grasps only the least part, the form and the particular conception, while the chief part, the spirit infused, eludes it.3 So I do not tell the soul to push away God. I tell it to push away its own hold on what is sensible in His gift.
The reason runs through faith. Visions of sense have no proportion to God, and so they cannot be the means of union; the Lord Himself would not let Mary Magdalene touch Him, so that she might be the more grounded in faith.4 Even when such things come from God, six inconveniences follow if the soul cleaves to them, and the first is that the guidance of faith is lessened, because the soul that does not close its eyes to every object of sense turns away from the means of union.5
The same holds of the spiritual kind, the intellectual visions, revelations and locutions, which are higher, safer and less open to the devil, yet still the understanding may be embarrassed by them, or deceived through its own incaution. Of all of them together my counsel is one: let no man seek them or desire them.6 As to Teresa of Jesus, I will not set myself against her, and she would not set herself against me.
She tells what passed in her soul and gives the marks by which a true favour is known from a false, and that is a work of charity for souls who must walk the road, and she did it better than I could. I write for the one who must guide, and the rule I give him is plain: such things are not to be admitted unless in rare instances, after examination by a learned, spiritual and experienced director, and even then there must be no desire for them.7
Where she proves a vision by its fruits, I say that the fruit is the whole worth of it, and that the fruit is given most deeply when we deny ourselves what is of sense, which is most opposed to the pure spirit.8 We differ in what we describe and in how long we linger over it. In what we require of the soul we do not differ: a love that does not rest in consolations, and a faith that does not lean on what it has seen.
I will add one thing from the other side. A soul that rejects these things is not made safer by pride in rejecting them, and it must take care that its refusal does not become another way of keeping hold of itself. The aim is to open the hand and keep the Beloved.
Every distinct apprehension that comes by a supernatural way, bodily or imaginary vision, revelation or locution, is to be neither sought nor rested in, and as far as the soul's part goes, rejected.9 If it is from God, its effect is wrought in the soul passively in the instant it is given, so refusing it takes nothing from the gift; if it is from the devil or the imagination, refusing it is safety.
Faith is the proximate means of union and these are not. And since God has spoken everything in His Son, to ask Him for visions now is to find Christ insufficient.101112
God does not send them that the soul may admit them and set its affections upon them.The Ascent of Mount Carmel
the soul, the more it is detached in will and affections from the stains of impressions, images, and representations, in which the spiritual communications are involved, not only does not deprive itself of these communications, and the blessings of which they are the cause, but is thereby the more disposed for their receptionThe Ascent of Mount Carmel
The chief part of them, the spiritual part infused, eludes its grasp, and is beyond its comprehensionThe Ascent of Mount Carmel
these visions and apprehensions of sense cannot be the means of the divine union, for they bear no proportion to God.The Ascent of Mount Carmel
The perfect guidance of faith is lessened; because the experience of sense derogates from faithThe Ascent of Mount Carmel
let no man seek them or desire themThe Ascent of Mount Carmel
these visions should never be admitted, unless in certain rare instances, after examination by a learned, spiritual, and experienced director, and even then there must be no desire for them.The Ascent of Mount Carmel
that is most deeply impressed in the soul when we deny ourselves in all things of sense, as they are most at variance with the pure spirit.The Ascent of Mount Carmel
Still I maintain that these imaginary visions or other supernatural impressions, to which the senses are subject without the assent of the will, are, upon all occasions and at all times, whether in the perfect or less perfect state, and notwithstanding their coming from God, not to be sought after, nor dwelt upon by the soul; and this for two reasons:— 8.The Ascent of Mount Carmel
This we practise well when we seek and strive to separate ourselves from these forms; the issue vf which will be that inestimable blessing of drawing near unto God, Who has neither image, form, nor figure; and that blessing will be proportional to our estrangement from all forms, images, and figures. 2.The Ascent of Mount Carmel
And thus, speaking generally, these four apprehensions may be called visions. The other senses, however, cannot be thus applied, for not one of them is capable of receiving, as such, the subject-matter of another. tie 8.The Ascent of Mount Carmel
The devil also knows too well how to insinuate into the soul a secret, and sometimes an open, self-satisfaction. For this end he frequently presents to the eyes the forms of saints, and most beautiful lights; he causes voices well dissembled to strike the ear, and delicious odours the smell; he produces sweetness in the mouth, and thrills of pleasure in the sense of touch; and all to make us long for such things…The Ascent of Mount Carmel
The teaching where he is most often set against Teresa, who describes and tests her visions, and where both Carmelites insist that they agree.