Chapter 120
The Son speaks: ”It is as though there were a membrane between me and that man. Because of it, my sweetness gives him no pleasure, for something else pleases him instead of me.” The bride heard this and said to the Lord: ”Can he never then feel any kind of pleasure?” The Lord answered: ”There are two kinds of pleasure, spiritual and carnal. Carnal or natural pleasure is when refreshment is taken as required by necessity. In that case a person should think as follows to himself: 'O Lord, you who have commanded us to take refreshment only when necessary, praise be to you! Grant me the grace not to let sin enter secretly as I take my refreshment.' If pleasure in temporal goods arises, a person should think as follows: 'Lord, all earthly things are but earth and fleeting. Grant, therefore, that I may make such use of them as to be able to render an account to you for all of them.'
Spiritual pleasure is when the soul delights in the kindnesses of God, and makes use of temporal things and busies herself about them only unwillingly and by necessity. The membrane is broken when God becomes pleasant to the soul and when she keeps the fear of God continuously in mind.”
It is not the cowl that makes the monk but the virtue of obedience and the observance of the rule. True contrition of heart along with a purpose of amendment snatches the soul from the hands of the devil, even if perfect contrition is lacking.
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