How delightful it is when two books one is reading, (I read
multiple books at once), overlap in themes and discussions.
I have been continuing my review of Manning and St. Angela on this blog in the past many days.
St. Angela’s amazing experience of the Illuminative and Unitive States
That God is Good seemed to be the attribute which
encompassed the entire spectrum of St.
Angela’s experience of God’s relationship to the world. Angela’s words remind
me, as I have noted before, those of Julian of Norwich. The mystical experience
of the Goodness of God, of God as holding the entire creation in His Hands is
described by both women.
Both Manning and Angela write of the gift of wisdom. Manning
is describing it from theology and Angela from experience, yet their
descriptions overlap.
In this post, I only want to highlight one aspect of wisdom
which is this--that we must not seek knowledge which is not to be known. Here
is St. Angela on this point: “There I beheld
the ineffable fullness of God; but I can relate nothing of it, save that I have
seen the plenitude of divine wisdom, wherein is all goodness.”
She continues, “In this plenitude I saw that it is not
lawful to seek or desire to know that which
the divine wisdom is going to do, for this is a forestalling and
dishonouring of it. When I persons, therefore, who seek to know such things, I
am persuaded that they do err.”
Me, too. I have warned and warned people about
over-concentrating on private revelations instead of praying day by day and
reading the Scriptures, going to Mass and Adoration, praying at the abortion
mills, working for Project Rachel. St. Angela tells us all to be involved in prayer,
fasting, penance. She states, “By Thy Passion deliver me, oh Lord.”
Angela says she was “in love” at this stage. She never
doubted that God was with her after her Illuminative and Unitive experiences.
She said, however, that she was in some darkness even after those experiences.
One of the results of encountering wisdom according to St. Angela is the enlargement of the mind. This enlargement of the mind is connected to
the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially the gifts of understanding and wisdom.
St. Angela writes that this is the way of
perfection.
I shall continue this posting on St.
Angela and Cardinal Manning in another post.
