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Albertus Magnus – On union with God

CHAPTER VII - ON THE PRACTICE OF INTERIOR RECOLLECTION

How needful it is, that the soul, lifted upon the wings of reverence and humble confidence, should rise above itself and should be able to say within itself:

He Whom I seek, love, desire, among all, more than all, and above all, cannot be perceived by the senses or the imagination, for He is above both the senses and the understanding. He cannot be perceived by the senses, yet He is the object of all our desires; He is without shape, but He is supremely worthy of our heart's deepest love. He is beyond compare, and to the pure in heart greatly to be desired. Above all else is He sweet and love-worthy; His goodness and perfection are infinite.

When thou shalt understand this, thy soul will enter into the darkness of the spirit, and will advance further and penetrate more deeply into itself. Thou wilt by this means attain more speedily unto the beholding in a dark manner of the Trinity in Unity, and Unity in Trinity.

For the highest, in spiritual things, is ever that which is most interior.

If the heart and mind, led on by love and desire, withdraw from the distractions of this world, and little by little abandon baser things to become recollected in the one true and unchangeable Good, to dwell there, held fast by the bonds of love, then wilt thou grow strong, and thy recollection will deepen the higher thou risest.

They who have attained to this dwell as by habit in the Sovereign Good, and become at last inseparable from it.