answered: No, it is not the most perfect, but a preliminary, gently
drawing a man on, that he may arrive at an essential way of being
carried up into God. The maiden asked him what he meant by essential
and non-essential. He answered: I call that man essential or
habitual (so to speak), who by the good and persevering practice of
all the virtues, has arrived at the point of finding the practice of
them in their highest perfection pleasant to him, even as the
brightness of the sun remains constant in the sun. But I call him
non-essential, in whom the brightness of the virtues shines in an
unstable and imperfect way like the brightness of the moon. That
full delight of grace which I described is so sweet to the spirit of
the non-essential man, that he would be glad always to have it. When
he has it, he rejoices; when he is deprived of it, he grieves
inordinately; and when it smiles upon him, he is reluctant to pass
to doing other things, even things that are pleasing to God; as I
will show you by an example. The servitor of the Divine Wisdom was
once walking in the chapter-house, and his heart was full of
heavenly jubilation, when the porter called him out to see a woman
who wished to confess to him. He was unwilling to interrupt his
inward delight, and received the porter harshly, bidding him tell
the woman that she must find some one else to confess to, for he did
not wish to hear her confession just then. She, however, being
oppressed with the burden of her sins, said that she felt specially
drawn to seek comfort from him, and that she would confess to no one
else. And when he still refused to go out, she began to weep most
sadly, and going into a corner, lamented greatly. Meanwhile, God
quickly withdrew from the servitor the delights of grace, and his
heart became as hard as flint. And when he desired to know the cause
of this, God answered him inwardly: Even as thou hast driven away
uncomforted that poor woman, so have I withdrawn from thee my Divine