From the Spiritual Canticle
Stanza 26
In the inner wine cellar
I drank of my Beloved, and, when I went abroad through all this valley
I no longer knew anything,
and lost the herd which I was following
This wine cellar is the last and most intimate degree of love in which the soul can be placed in this life. Accordingly she calls this degree of love "the inner wine cellar," that is, the most interior...
And we can assert that there are seven of these degrees or wine cellars of love. They are all possessed when the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are possessed perfectly according to the soul's capacity for receiving them.
It should be known that many people reach and enter the first wine cellars according to the perfection of their love, but few in this life reach this last and most interior; for in it is wrought the perfect union with God, called spiritual marriage, of which the soul is now speaking. (St. John of the Cross)
When observing the lives of the saints we can recall the great love and union they had with Christ. A love so interior and vehement that is caused them to do great things for the salvation of souls. The Apostles come to mind here because we know of what they suffered in spreading the Gospel of Christ. We know that when they were filled with the Holy Spirit observers mistakenly thought they were drunk with wine. The holy inebriation they experienced was an overflow into their senses of the love of God pouring his gifts of the Spirit into their souls.
St. John of the Cross teaches us that holy consolations from God can overflow into our senses. For example, the gift of tears is a sensible manifestation of the love of God which he places in our heart. We must be careful, as he teaches us not to be attached to the consolation of the senses. We may grow to expect them, or feel that God has abandoned us when they disappear. We must walk in the night of pure faith.
The Seven
Gifts of the Holy Spirit:
Gifts of the Holy Spirit:
Let us pray to Our Lady, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, that through her intercession she will bring us to that holy union with the Most Holy Trinity, to spiritual marriage with our Beloved, Christ our Lord.
Let us pray for each other.
Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS
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