Simple Method of Raising the Soul to Contemplation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Meditative by nature, and contemplative by vocation, Malaval's interior life seems to have matured quickly. He was a profound student of the mystics; and his book reveals to us something of the depth and beauty of that life of prayer to which he attained under their guidance. We may well suppose that personal experience lies behind such passages as that in which he tells his pupil that sometimes three and four hours may pass with such facility and sweetness in contemplation, that a soul which abandoned itself without reserve would be exhausted. When your soul has learned not to receive too many out ward impressions, he says to her again, God will become the light of your eyes, so that you will see everything for Him and in Him. Contemporary opinion soon came to regard him as a saint. All the pens in the world, says one witness, cannot express that which was seen and felt, when Malaval was prostrate before the holy altars.