Fruits
of Spiritual Experience
221
the conduct of his life and a sense of renewed vitality . . .. On so many
occasions men and women have achieved, by what they call divine
help or grace, that which they, and others who knew them, would have
regarded as being beyond their normal capabilities.
209
One interesting result of a mystical experience was in the case of
St Thomas Aquinas, learned theologian, author of many works, including
the
Summa Theologica
, which he worked on from 1265 to 1273. He did
not
complete it, however, for a vision during mass on 6 December 1273,
the Feast of St Nicholas, resulted in him not writing any more. He pro-
claimed his theology mere straw in comparison to what had been revealed
to him.
Many experiences lead to a complete change of attitudes to life and
often in moral behaviour, as this account shows.
I find it difficult to describe my experience, only to say that it seems to
be outside of me and enormous and yet at the same time I am part of
it, everything is. It is purely personal and helps me to live and to love
others. It is difficult to describe, but in some way because of this feeling
I
feel united to all people, to all living things. Of recent years the feeling
has become so strong that I am now training to become a social worker
because I find that I must help people: in some way I feel their unhap-
piness as my own.
210
However, not everyone follows the promptings of such experiences.
Here is one which was ignored, and the fruits, which may well have been
to affect lives for the better, were not brought about.
In December 1983 I literally bumped into a woman who had often
been seated near me on the evening commuter train; we apologized to
each other with a smile. The next day the
trains were in chaos and
I found myself advising her which platform to head for. We soon dis-
covered that we were both Christians, and before long she confided in
me that her husband, a deacon of their church, had deserted her and
their children for another woman. My wife and I helped support her
through the years of trauma that followed.
One day, when I had just bought Jack Dominian’s book
Marriage,
Faith and Love
, two words flashed into my mind, as if relating to their
marriage, ‘Nox praecessit’. My Latin was already rusty, but
I managed
to confirm that they were real words; but what did they signify? Where
did they come from? Eventually I decided that they would be found in
the Latin Vulgate Bible in Romans 13, and knowing that there was a
Religious and Spiritual Experience
222
copy in the library, I went there and opened it. There it was,
nox
praecessit
: ‘The night is far spent’ – and then it goes on, ‘daylight is at
hand: let us therefore cast away the works of darkness, and let us put
on the armour of light.’ I felt that these words were intended for my
friend’s husband, and the conviction grew
that I must write to him
about them. I was astonished to find that he too had been given the
same words (though he knew no Latin whatsoever) and taken them to
Christian counsellors who had told him he must cast away the works
of darkness and return to his wife! Unfortunately he chose to ignore
what God was saying to him: ‘God will forgive me’, he said, and went
on to divorce and remarriage. I have reason for believing that he deeply
regrets doing so. ‘O God, why did I do it?’ he was heard to exclaim
some years later as he revisited his old church. When his ex-wife visited
him in hospital years later, they put their arms round each other; but,
he said, ‘I could not stand another divorce.’ (005433)
Many works of art have been created in different media to express the
spiritual. Writers, artists and musicians all
move beyond the everyday
world as they create, and those enjoying the results of their work respond
on a profound level.
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