Yes, but you did not describe the various kinds of "spiritual sweetness" he talked about. Another kind of spiritual sweetness is an exaggerated asceticism that gives itself more and more penances, a kind of sadomasochism that takes pleasure in penances and thus robs them of the very nature of penance.
Chapter VI, i-ii
For some of these persons, attracted by the pleasure which
they find therein, kill themselves with penances, and others weaken
themselves with fasts, by performing more than their frailty can bear,
without the order or advice of any, but rather endeavouring to avoidf an
those whom they should obey in these matters; some, indeed, dare to do
these things even though the contrary has been commanded them.
2. These persons are most imperfect and unreasonable; for they set
bodily penance before subjection and obedience, which is penance
according to reason and discretion, and therefore a sacrifice more
acceptable and pleasing to God than any other. But such one-sided
penance is no more than the penance of beasts, to which they are
attracted, exactly like beasts, by the desire and pleasure which they
find therein.
All throughout these passages he talks about those who don't obey their confessors, who resent them for not being as fervent as they claim that they themselves are, and stresses the virtue of obedience. I described this elsewhere, speaking of Jansenists, as a kind of addiction to rules, that sometimes possesses people to the point that they ADD rules to the Catholic religion that simply are not there. But obedience enjoins us to neither add nor subtract from the laws of the Church.
When you read a book like this, you shouldn't read it for the sections that may flatter you, disregarding the rest, or even using it as a means to criticize others. You should read it for the sections that admonish you. Otherwise you are not making effective use of it. Who that has spent any time on CathInfo recently can deny how perfectly St. John of the Cross describes myself in this passage?
Chapter IV, vi
Sometimes, again, there arises within these spiritual persons,
whether they be speaking or performing spiritual actions, a certain
vigour and bravado, through their having regard to persons who are
present, and before these persons they display a certain kind of vain
gratification. This also arises from luxury of spirit, after the manner
wherein we here understand it, which is accompanied as a rule by
complacency in the will.
This book seems rather harsh but it trains you to always mistrust yourself. Taking too much pleasure in prayer can lead to arrogance unless you remind yourself that whatever spiritual benefits God bestows on us come from Him alone, gratuitously, not from any merit in ourselves, so that you receive the gifts He sends, no matter how great, with a chastened spirit. There have been times where I've felt I was on the verge of an ecstasy that, by the direction of the Holy Ghost, I then cut off, because I don't feel I'm ready for it. I'll get up and go to bed right at the moment when I'm starting to tap a vein of "spiritual sweetness." At this point somber, dry prayer, as well as even a feeling of disapproval from God, may be protecting me from more sins of pride.
This kind of muted "ecstasy within sobriety" seems to me the safest course for most of us. If you are going to venture on a "Journey of the Mind To God" such as St. Bonaventure you'd better have passed through lots of spiritual dryness first. And there are very few who, having reached that point, should even talk about it -- St. Bonaventure being an exception, because someone has to instruct others that such heights even exist to be aimed for.
Topic: Spiritual Gluttony (Read 1289 times)