Where are you on the path: Purgative Way → Passive Purification → Spiritual Age 11
What happens in the soul?
The soul continues to deeply desire the Good Lord, but something disconcerting begins to happen: it no longer feels it as before.
Sensitive fervors may disappear. Tears, consolation or those intense emotions that once accompanied prayer no longer come with the same ease.
However, God’s desire remains.
And precisely there something new begins to reveal itself: the soul discovers that it can seek the Good Lord not because it feels His presence, but because it loves Him and desires to be with Him.
Faith thus begins to detach itself from sensations and rely more and more on God himself.
The action of the Good Lord
the Good Lord begins to delicately withdraw some of the sensitive supports that had accompanied the soul during the previous stages.
He doesn’t do it to push the soul away, but to teach the soul to seek Him in a purer way.
What may initially feel like a loss begins to become a purification of love.
How does the soul respond?
Remain faithful.
The soul continues to seek God even though the soul no longer always finds the comfort the soul once experienced.
This perseverance is essential: the desire remains even if the emotion disappears.
Little by little, a firmer fidelity and a real and deep desire for God develop.
The prayer
Meditative prayer continues, but begins to lose the sensitive supports that previously accompanied it.
It can be drier and less emotional. However, the soul continues to seek the Good Lord and persevere in prayer.
Thus begins an important transition: praying because you desire God, not because prayer produces comfort.
Signs that may accompany this age
• Intense desire for God.
• Decrease in sensitive fervors.
• Less emotions during prayer.
• Perseverance despite dryness.
• Growing loyalty.
• A faith that is increasingly less dependent on what one feels.
A phrase to remember
“Even if I don’t feel you, I still want you.”
Where does it lead
The soul has learned to remain when comfort disappears. Now that purification can become more intense. Spiritual Desolation begins.