A mind that is free, held, and able to see God

St Paul reminds us that we, being planted in the likeness of God, may attain to higher and truer vision. For this St Dionysius says we need three things. The first is possession of one's

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mind. The second is a mind that is free. The third is a mind that can see. How can we acquire this speculative mind? By a habit of mental concentration.

The soul has a spiritual spot in her where she holds all things free of matter, just as the first cause holds in itself all things immaterially. The soul also has a light in her with which she creates all things. When this light and this spot coincide, so that each is the seat of the other, then, only then, one is in full possession of one's mind. What more is there to say? It means our outward self says farewell to all satisfaction in creatures, and the inner self becomes so fit for God that nothing arises within him that he would wish changed. Then, and not until then, a person is self-possessed. This cannot happen here, for as the Doctor says, when this that we are speaking of occurs, the highest power of the soul sees God in her own power. As St Dionysius puts it, then the soul is not called soul, she is the sovereign power of God.

The second thing is a free mind. Freedom means not being bound in any way, our being as free and clear and unmixed as we were in our first emanation, when we were released in the Holy Ghost.

The third is the speculative mind. In this the soul sees God. What does the soul see when she sees God? Dionysius says she sees the one power. This unique power makes her one with it. She sees in him also the good surpassing good, embracing all good things. He wants to draw us out of ourselves, to make us unwilling to remain in ourselves. As the pagan philosopher says, the highest delight, exceeding all delights, draws the soul out of all enjoyments into the sovereign truth where all things end. And the same master says, why are we unaware of this? Because we are bent on lower things. Suppose we find ourselves desiring God above all else, then God has touched this highest power. By this touch she is moved out of herself and into him, not that she is moved by grace as one thing moves another, for she has no body belonging to her deity. St Dionysius says the motion of the soul is as in a circle, since she never departs from her center.

He says too that God is splendid, and this for three reasons. He is clear, he is a mutual illumination, he is one and the same. What does clear mean? Free from any mixture with body, remaining in his purity or his nature of light. According to the scriptures, the soul is seven times clearer than the sun. The sun is clear, though it is a bodily thing. But I say the soul is a hundred times clearer than the sun, for the sun is bodily while the soul is spiritual. Her surpassing clarity comes from the superiority of spirit over matter. Now if the soul is this clear, then God must be infinitely

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clearer, for he created her, and the cause has more than its creature has.

He is also a mutual illumination, for all that is in God is God. And St Augustine says the Father and the Son shine into each other in the Holy Ghost, who is the bond between them. And the three hypostases, which are the three Persons, have one nature, like three lights with one shining. So too with us there should be unity, all multiplicity gathered into the highest power, and this sovereign power cast into God, to remain there without reflection.

Third, he is one and the same, this being characteristic of divinity, which is the same as unity. This cannot be said of any creature, for it cannot be maintained of any creature that it has its being from itself. St Paul says, what we have, we have received from the one good, namely God, from whom come all good things. Things are not from themselves. That which is from itself, and from which all things are, is God. It is clearly taught that God is one and the same. And it is for us to be like him. When we have parted from ourselves, then we are not-being rather than being. May we, being planted in the likeness of God, attain to higher and truer vision. So help us God. Amen.