Workbook Review Question Answers

Lesson Twelve

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1.  Why does suffering continue to play a role in our spiritual development, even in the Prayer of Conforming Union? What kind of suffering is it?

Suffering continues to play a role in prayer because our union with the Lord, while delectable in so many ways, is neither complete nor permanent. So long as we are in this world, we have not reached the ecstatic happiness of heaven. Far from something to fear, the suffering we experience is a suffering of desire, of love that yearns for total union with the Divine Bridegroom.  

2.  What distinguishes the Prayer of Conforming Union from the Prayer of Union? Over what faculties does God now begin to exercise control?

In the Prayer of Union, the Lord captivates all the interior faculties (intellect, will, memory, imagination, etc.), leaving only the bodily senses free. In the Prayer of Conforming Union, God takes over completely by bringing our exterior senses under his loving control as well. At this point, we are completely at God’s disposal, like clay in the hands of the Divine Potter. 

3. How does Mary’s betrothal to Joseph help us to understand what’s going on?

In biblical times, betrothal was not a trial period like “engagement” but the first stage of marriage itself. A betrothed man and woman, like Joseph and Mary at the time of Christ’s conception, were formally and legally united as husband and wife before the act of marital consummation. Spiritual Betrothal is comparable to this state. When we reach the Prayer of Conforming Union, we now belong totally to the Lord, even as we await the consummation of “Spiritual Marriage” in the Ninth Grade of prayer.

4.  What are the two basic forms of ecstasies, according to the video? How do the Saints and mystics describe them?

Of the ecstasies of the Prayer of Conforming Union, some are gentle and delightful and some are painful. Both result from the Lord’s intense love toward us. Delightful ecstasies tend to come on gradually; they are times of union with God that bring tremendous sweetness and make you realize how miserable the things of this world are in comparison with him. Also, the soul can seem to have left the body, which has the experience of losing its natural warmth. Painful ecstasies, by contrast, are times of bodily suffering. Strange as it sounds, the body can even become cold and appear as if dead. Of course, we have to remember that given our level of ascent up the divine ladder, the sufferings we’re talking about are driven by intense love. So while they’re painful on one level, Teresa says they’re a kind of delectable death. For the most part, the delightful type is simply called “ecstasy,” while the painful type is called “transport” or “flight of the spirit” or “rapture.”        

5.  Why does God take over our external senses and “shut us down”, so to speak, in this level of Conforming Union?

St. Teresa says God takes over and shuts down our external senses for our own protection. He does this because if we had any idea of how close we were to his divine majesty, we might be unable to remain alive.