God loves without limit and this puts a loving person most securely at peace. - John of Ruysbroeck

As much as is iron, so much is fire; And as much as is fire, so much is iron; Yet the iron doth not become fire, Nor the fire iron, But each retains its substance and nature. So likewise the spirit of man doth not become God, But is deified, And knows itself breadth, length, height and depth: And as far as God is God, So far the loving spirit is made one with Him In love.

If every earthly pleasure were melted into a single experience and bestowed upon one man, it would be as nothing when measured by the joy of which I write for here it is God who passes into the depths of us in all His purity, and the soul is not only filled but overflowing. This experience is that light that makes manifest to the soul the terrible desolation of such as live divorced from love; it melts the man utterly; he is no longer master of his joy. Such possession produces intoxication, the state of the spirit in which its bliss transcends the uttermost bounds of anticipation or desire. Sometimes the ecstasy pours forth in song, sometimes in tears: at one moment it finds expression in movement, at others in the intense stillness of burning, voiceless feeling. Some men knowing this bliss wonder if others feel God as they do; some are assured that no living creature has ever had such experiences as theirs; there are those who wonder that the world is not set aflame by this joy; and there are others who marvel at its nature, asking whence it comes, and what it is. The body itself can know no greater pleasure upon earth than to participate in it; and there are moments when the soul feels that it must shiver to fragments in the poignancy of this experience.

Then are we ravished out of self by purified Love, even to the Face of God, freed and emptied of every event and illusion. This is the contemplative life of highest price.