G od is the one who leads me and elevates me to that state. I do not go to it on my own, for by myself I would not know how to want, desire, or seek it. I am now continually in this state. Furthermore, God very often elevates me to this state with no need, even, for my consent; for when I hope or expect it least, when I am not thinking about anything, suddenly my soul is elevated by God and I hold dominion over and comprehend the whole world. It seems, then, as if I am no longer on earth but in heaven, in God.

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quote 3458  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, pp. 214-216

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E ven if at times I can still experience outwardly some little sadness and joy, nonetheless there is in my soul a chamber in which no joy, sadness, or enjoyment from any virtue, or delight over anything that can be named, enters. This is where the All Good, which is not any particular good, resides, and it is so much the All Good that there is no other good. Although I blaspheme by speaking about it -- and I speak about it so badly because I cannot find words to express it -- I nonetheless affirm that in this manifestation of God I discover the complete truth. In it, I understand and possess the complete truth that is in heaven and in hell, in the entire world, in every place, in all things, in every enjoyment in heaven and in every creature. And I see all this is so truly and certainly that no one could convince me otherwise. Even if the whole world were to tell me otherwise, I would laugh it to scorn. Furthermore, I saw the One who is and how he is the being of all creatures. I also saw how he made me capable of understanding those realities I have just spoken about better than when I saw them in that darkness which used to delight me so. Moreover, in that state I see myself as alone with God, totally cleansed, totally sanctified, totally true, totally upright, totally certain, totally celestial in him. And when I am in that state, I do not remember anything else…

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quote 3457  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, pp. 214-216

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W hen I am in that darkness I do not remember anything about anything human, or the God-man, or anything which has a form. Nevertheless, I see all and I see nothing. As what I have spoken of withdraws and stays with me, I see the God-man. He draws my soul with great gentleness and he sometimes says to me: "You are I and I am you." I see, then, those eyes and that face so gracious and attractive as he leans to embrace me. In short, what proceeds from those eyes and that face is what I said that I saw in that previous darkness which comes from within, and which delights me so that I can say nothing about it. When I am in the God-man my soul is alive. And I am in the God-man much more than in the other vision of seeing God with darkness. The soul is alive in that vision concerning the God-man. The vision with darkness, however, draws me so much more that there is no comparison. On the other hand, I am in the God-man almost continually. It began in this continual fashion on a certain occasion when I was given the assurance that there was no intermediary between God and myself. Since that time there has not been a day or a night in which I did not continually experience this joy of the humanity of Christ.

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quote 3456  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, p. 205

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L ikewise, divine goodness granted me, afterward, the grace that from two there was made one, because I could not will anything except as he himself willed. How great is the mercy of the one who realized this union! -- it almost completely stabilized my soul. I possessed God so fully that I was no longer in my previous customary state but was led to find a peace in which I was united with God and was content with everything.

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quote 3455  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, pp. 181-182

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L ater, this same companion {I.e. Masazuola} told me, brother scribe, that on one occasion when Christ's faithful one {I.e. Angela} was lying on her side in a state of ecstasy, she saw something like a splendid, magnificent star shining with a wonderful and countless variety of colors. Rays of astonishing beauty, some thick, others slender, radiated from Christ's faithful one. Emanating from her breast while she was lying on her side, the rays unfolded or coiled as they ascended upward toward heaven. She saw this with her bodily eyes while she was wide awake, near the third hour. The star was not very big.

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quote 3454  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, p. 144

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N o one can be saved without divine light. Divine light causes us to begin and to make progress, and it leads us to the summit of perfection. Therefore if you want to begin and to receive this divine light, pray. If you have begun to make progress and want this light to be intensified within you, pray. And if you have reached the summit of perfection, and want to be superillumined so as to remain in that state, pray.

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quote 3453  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, p. 234

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T his embrace of God sets ablaze a fire within the soul with which the whole soul burns for Christ. It also produces a light so great that the soul understands the fullness of God's goodness, which it experiences in itself, and which is, moreover, much greater than the soul's experience of it. The effect then of this fire within the soul is to render it certain and secure that Christ is within it. And yet, what we have said is nothing in comparison to what this experience really is.

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quote 3452  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, p. 190

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I saw a fullness, a brightness with which I felt myself so filled that words fail me, nor can I find anything to compare it with. I cannot tell you that I saw something with a bodily form, but he was as he is in heaven, namely, of such an indescribable beauty that I do not know how to describe it to you except as the Beauty and the All Good.

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quote 3451  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, pp. 151-152

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F or when love is pure, you consider yourself as worthless, see yourself as dead and as nothing, and present yourself to God as dead and putrid.

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quote 3450  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, p. 193

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M y soul was further told that God having done all these thing for her, and having been born for her -- which also meant "having descended to such a great level of indignity and vileness" for her -- it is fitting that in return the soul be thus reborn into God and die to itself, that is, to its vices and sins, and in this way "ascend to a high level of dignity." Because as soon as the soul thus dies to itself and becomes aware of how much it is loved, the life of grace is given to it and it lives in Christ.

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quote 3449  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, p. 161

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B ecause of love, and in it, the soul first grows tender, then it pines and grows weak, and afterward finds strength… Thus the soul in the beginning seeks divine consolations, but if these are withdrawn, it grows tender, and even cries out against God and complains to him: "You are hurting me! Why are you doing this?" and so forth. Assurance of God's presence engenders tenderness in the soul. In this state it is satisfied with consolations and other similar gifts. But in the absence of these, love grows and begins to seek the loved one. If it does not find him, the soul pines. It is then no longer satisfied with consolations, for it seeks only the Beloved. The more the soul receives consolations and feels God, the more its love grows, but the more, likewise, it pines in the absence of the Beloved. But once the soul is perfectly united to God, it is placed in the seat of truth, for truth is the seat of the soul… It possesses God to the fullness of its capacity. And God even expands the soul so that it may hold all that he wishes to place in it… In this light it sees so well that God does everything with order and appropriateness that even in his absence, it does not pine. Likewise it becomes so conformed to God's will that even in his absence it is content with everything he does and entrusts itself totally to him.

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quote 3448  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, p. 223

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I ndeed, such is the plan of divine love that its purpose is always to draw back to itself that which it loves; it draws everyone out of themselves and out of all created reality, and totally into the uncreated.

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quote 3447  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, p. 292

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B ut we do not need to be totally present in our other activities, such as eating and drinking, our comings and goings, and the like. If we wish to feel the fruit of true prayer, while at the same time performing our various other occupations, we are to keep our heart totally present to God. If we are tempted while praying, it is because our hearts are not totally committed to prayer.

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quote 3446  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, p. 260

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M y heart was drawn out of all worldly concerns and placed in God in such a manner that I could neither think of nor see anything except God. Whether I spoke or ate, or whatever I did, it did not prevent my heart from always being in God.

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quote 3445  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, p. 169

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T he soul cannot have true knowledge of God through its own efforts or by means of any created thing, but only by divine light and by a special gift of divine grace. I believe there is no quicker or easier way for the soul to obtain this divine grace from God, supreme Good and supreme Love, than by a devout, pure, humble, continual, and violent prayer. By prayer I mean not merely prayer from the mouth, but of the mind and heart, of all the powers of the soul and senses of the body. This is the prayer prayed by the soul who wills and desires to find this divine light, studying, meditating and reading without cease in the Book and the more-than-a-book of Life. This Book of Life is the entire life of Christ while he lived as a mortal on earth.

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quote 3444  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, p. 302

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A nd immediately upon presenting himself to the soul, God likewise discloses himself and expands the soul and gives it gifts and consolations which the soul has never before experienced, and which are far more profound than earlier ones. In this state, the soul is drawn out of all darkness and granted a greater awareness of God than I would have thought possible. This awareness is of such clarity, certitude, and abysmal profundity that there is no heart in the world that can ever in any way understand it or even conceive it. Even my own heart cannot think about it by itself, or ever return to it to understand or even conceive anything about it. This state occurs only when God, as a gift, elevates the soul to himself, for no heart by itself can in any way expand itself to attain it. Therefore, there is absolutely nothing that can be said about this experience, for no words can be found or invented to express or explain it; no expansion of thought or mind can possibly reach to those things, they are so far beyond everything -- for there is nothing which can explain God. I repeat there is absolutely nothing which can explain God. Christ's faithful one affirmed with utmost certitude and wanted it understood that there is absolutely nothing which can explain God.

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quote 3443  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, p. 213

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N o matter how far the understanding of the soul is able to stretch itself, that is nothing in comparison to what it experiences when it is lifted beyond itself and placed in the bosom of God. Then the soul understands, finds its delight, and rests in the divine goodness; it cannot bring back any report of this, because it is completely beyond what the intelligence can conceive, and beyond words; but in this state the soul swims.

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quote 3442  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, p. 208

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I n a vision I beheld the fullness of God in which I beheld and comprehended the whole creation, that is, what is on this side and what is beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else. And in everything that I saw, I could perceive nothing except the presence of the power of God, and in a manner totally indescribable. And my soul in an excess of wonder cried out: "This world is pregnant with God!" Wherefore I understood how small is the whole of creation -- that is, what is on this side and what is beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else -- but the power of God fills it all to overflowing.

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quote 3441  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, pp. 169-170

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G od presents himself in the inmost depths of my soul. I understand not only that he is present, but also how he is present in every creature and in everything that has being, in a devil and a good angel, in heaven and hell, in good deeds and in adultery or homicide, in all things, finally, which exist or have some degree of being, whether beautiful or ugly. She further said: I also understand that he is no less present in a devil than a good angel. Therefore, while I am in this truth, I take no less delight in seeing or understanding his presence in a devil or in an act of adultery than I do in a good angel or in a good deed. This mode of divine presence in my soul has become almost habitual. Moreover, this mode of God's presence illuminates my soul with such great truth and bestows on it such divine graces that when my soul is in this mode it cannot commit any offense, and it receives an abundance of divine gifts. Because of this understanding of God's presence my soul is greatly humiliated and ashamed of its sins. It is also granted deep wisdom, great divine consolation, and joy.

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quote 3440  |   Angela of Foligno Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, pp. 212-213

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W hen God is seen in darkness it does not bring a smile to the lips, nor devotion, fervor, or ardent love; neither does the body or the soul tremble or move as at other times; the soul sees nothing and everything; the body sleeps and speech is cut off. God spoke to me, all those which you ever wrote - I now understand that these were so much less than that which I see with such great darkness, that in no way do I place my hope in them, nor is there any of my hope in them. Even if it were possible that all these previous experiences were not true, nonetheless, that could in no way diminish my hope - the hope that is so secure and certain in the All Good which I see with such darkness. Christ's faithful one told me, that her soul had been elevated only three times to this most exalted and altogether ineffable way of seeing God with such darkness, a vision which was a superlative and utterly wonderful grace. For in this state it seems to me that I am standing or lying in the midst of the Trinity!'

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quote 2819  |   Angela of Foligno Angela of Foligno, from Angela of Foligno: Complete Works, translated by Paul Lachance (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1993).

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A fterward, I saw him in a darkness, and in a darkness precisely because the good that he is, is far too great to be conceived or understood. Indeed, anything conceivable or understandable does not attain this good or even come near it. My soul was then granted a most certain faith, a secure and most firm hope, a continual security about God that took away all my fear. In this good, which is seen in the darkness, I recollected myself totally. I was made so sure of God that in no way can I ever entertain any doubts about him or of my possession of him.

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quote 2818  |   Angela of Foligno Angela of Foligno, from Angela of Foligno: Complete Works, translated by Paul Lachance (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press,1993).

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A fterward, I saw him in a darkness, and in a darkness precisely because the good that he is, is far too great to be conceived or understood. Indeed, anything conceivable or understandable does not attain this good or even come near it.

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quote 2817  |   Angela of Foligno Angela of Foligno, from Angela of Foligno: Complete Works, translated by Paul Lachance (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press,1993).

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