I<\/p>\n
One day in the ’90s, standing in my kitchen, I suddenly prayed, “Lord, give me light!” The ‘reply’ came just as suddenly, “The light comes later.” This is an example of an inner or interior locution. Grokipedia<\/a>:<\/p>\n Interior locution is a concept in Christian mysticism, particularly within Catholic theology, referring to a supernatural form of private revelation in which a divine message or communication is received directly in the intellect or soul, without audible words, external sounds, or sensory involvement. This inner “voice” or infusion of knowledge is distinct from exterior locutions, which may be heard aloud by others, and from visions, which involve imaginative or corporeal imagery; instead, it operates purely on a spiritual level, often providing guidance, reassurance, or enlightenment during prayer or spiritual trials.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The above definition is accurate. How do I know? I have read the great mystics (Juan de la Cruz, Teresa de Avila et al., and the best of the commentators Augustin Poulain and Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, to mention just two. An article of mine on Poulain here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n I hasten to point out that while the experiencing of an inner locution cannot be doubted, at least while it is occurring, one reasonably can and perhaps ought to doubt the source of the experience. I petitioned the Lord for light (knowledge, enlightenment, understanding),\u00a0 and I ‘received’ an ‘answer.’ But from whom? From the Lord?\u00a0 Which lord? Lord Krishna? Lord Jesus Christ? That it was Jesus\u00a0 cannot be read off from the experience itself.\u00a0 Such a reading goes beyond the phenomenology of the experience.\u00a0 On another occasion, while in deep meditation, I ‘heard’ the locution, “I want to tear you apart.” Presumably that was not<\/em> from Jesus Christ or any good denizen of the Unseen Order.\u00a0 But neither does it follow that it was from a demonic agent. The experience qua experience is neutral on the question whether there are any demonic agents.\u00a0 On a third occasion, during a solitary desert hike, pondering a certain course of action, the ‘message’ was: I am with you. <\/em>As far as the phenomenology shows, that ‘message’ could have been from Christ or it could have been from a demon impersonating Christ or from the depths of my own psyche.<\/p>\n II<\/p>\n The above is preliminary to my title question. Spelled out, what I am asking myself is whether I should be praying for light (infused contemplation, verification of faith contents, objective certainty) or praying instead for a deepening of faith, and a strengthening of the will to go forward by faith,\u00a0 That I pray at all shows that I have some<\/em> faith. (Can you imagine Richard Dawkins or Galen Strawson or Daniel Dennett or David Stove\u00a0 praying while they are or were healthy?\u00a0 When Stove got sick and near death, his stridently cocksure atheistic convictions began to totter.)\u00a0 Pondering the question of whether I should be praying for infused contemplation or for a deepening of faith while remaining (relatively speaking) ‘in the dark,’ I imagined a conversation between me and God.\u00a0 What follows is of course not a report of an inner locution, but a made-up story.<\/p>\n I pray, “Give me light, Lord!” The Lord replies:<\/p>\n Look man, I’ve given you enough light in the form of what you call glimpses, vouchsafings, peeks behind the veil, intimations of Elsewhere. I’ve given you enough light on which to go forward.\u00a0 The human predicament is probationary and penal.\u00a0 You want it to be full of light. But part of your probation is to see if you can hold out in the dark. The light comes later! <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Plato saw the world\u00a0 for what it is: a speluncular chiaroscuro of light and dark, a shadowland in which substance is rarely descried but easily denied.\u00a0 So now your test is to live by faith. To quote one of your favorite philosophers, “There is light enough for those who wish to see and darkness enough for the contrary-minded.” (Pascal)\u00a0 Even men of far higher spiritual rank than you such as Augustine and Aquinas were permitted the <\/em>visio mystica on rare occasions only. You yourself have written<\/a> about the mysticism <\/em>\u00e0 deux of Augustine and his mother Monica when they shared the vision at Ostia.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n And you know that monks in monasteries have spent long lives without experiencing infused contemplation. So settle down in the dark, listen, wait, and stop asking me for light.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I One day in the ’90s, standing in my kitchen, I suddenly prayed, “Lord, give me light!” The ‘reply’ came just as suddenly, “The light comes later.” This is an example of an inner or interior locution. Grokipedia: Interior locution is a concept in Christian mysticism, particularly within Catholic theology, referring to a supernatural form … Continue reading “Pray for Light or Pray for Faith?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,66,139,307],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autobiographical","category-faith-and-reason","category-religion","category-unseen-order"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13818"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13821,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13818\/revisions\/13821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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