On prayer and the contemplative life · Aquinas, Saint Thomas
2. Again, men but taste the sweetness of contemplation here, snatching
Chapter 87 of 107 · 1 min read
at it, as it were, and in passing: whence S. Augustine says: "Thou introducest me to a most unwonted affection within me, to an unspeakable sweetness; yet I fall back again as though dragged down by a grievous weight!" And S. Gregory, expounding those words of Job, When a spirit passed before me, says: "The mind does not long remain steadfastly occupied with the sweetness of intimate contemplation, for it is recalled to itself, stricken back by the immensity of that Light." The contemplative life, then, is not lasting.
It is true indeed that no action can remain long at the pitch of its intensity. And the goal of contemplation is to attain to the uniformity of Divine contemplation, as Denis the Areopagite says. Hence, although in this sense contemplation cannot last long, yet it can last long as regards its other acts.
