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SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

point vierge (“the virgin point”) or the “last, irreducible, where God is and what God is asking of them now. They
secret center of the heart where God alone penetrates” need to follow the compass in that direction and not go
(Bourgeault, 37). Those at the fifth station have begun to off course by focusing on what spiritual states or stages
sense and experience their point vierge. they might be experiencing in prayer. What matters is
While Teresa was still in the fourth mansion, she that they remain in the present moment, aware, waiting,
sensed a shift to what she called the fifth mansion, the and receptive to God’s self-communication (Burrows,
mansion of holiness, and she experienced the prayer of 88). The spiritual director’s role provides a stabilizing
union. She came to this awareness only after she moved presence in helping the spiritual directee with this focus,
on to the deepest mansions of her soul (Burrows, 83). even if they have not experienced the fifth mansion them-
She described it as a “delicious death” for “in the prayer selves (Ruffing, 48). The spiritual director also needs to
of union the soul is asleep ... it has died entirely to this keep the spiritual directee exploring the pain and suffer-
world, to live more truly than ever in God” (Teresa [a], ing, aloneness and renunciation, death and rebirth that
98). It was a dissolving into holiness, a transition from constitute the difficulties of coping with the intensity of
the ego state to the mystical state (Myss, disc 7). such inner transformation (McLean, 7).
Although Teresa experienced this stage as “a very interi-
or love affair of pure joy and awe and freedom” (McLean, Stage 6
7), she also experienced it as a time of being tested and Tawakkul (trust, surrender, confidence, reliance) is the
prepared for what she called the betrothal, which required sixth station of the heart—Attar’s Valley of Bewilderment
even greater surrender. This was a transformation of will, (197). For those at this stage, their certain knowledge is
not just feelings. She used the image of the silkworm that everything is in God’s hand. Their total trust in this
emerging from the cocoon into a new species—a dif- knowledge enables them to endure all hardships and pain
ferent level of being—receiving gifts of infused prayer. without discouragement. Rather, they respond with joy
However, in this mansion, “it is not possible to underes- and strengthened faith because of their total surrender
timate how much pain, agony and suffering, often with to God’s will. They perceive that God gives them all
great hardship, aloneness and renunciation, is experi- they need and are grateful. They have reached into their
enced in this process of death and rebirth” (McLean, 7). point vierge. However, the loss of self and the move into
Patience is required. The deeper level of being of the Sufi the love of God leads to confusion and uncertainty—to
sabr is echoed in Teresa’s new emergent being experienced bewilderment.
in the prayer of union. Teresa of Avila’s sixth mansion, the mansion of sanctifi-
cation, is the transition from the Illuminative Way to the
Spiritual Direction for Stage 5 Unitive Way. It is the mansion “where the soul, wounded
Al-Ghazālī’s spiritual guidance for people at this station with love for its Spouse, sighs more than ever for soli-
of the heart consisted of warnings to retain self-control tude” (Teresa [b], 6.I: 1, 154). She uses the imagery of
and avoid pride and ostentation. They must pay atten- spiritual betrothal to describe her experience of this stage
tion, he warned, and see the value of obedience to God, which is the actual living out of the passionate love begun
see the inadequacy of creatures, see their weaknesses and in the fifth mansion. The very essence of this sixth man-
their ignorance, and not attach importance to them with sion, this deeper movement inwards, is what Teresa calls
their hearts. They “must be indifferent to their praise, “rapture,” the wrenching of the self away from itself so as
their commendation and their high esteem, in which to live in God, the realisation of which “annihilates any
there is no benefit” (Al Azhari). The Shaykh watches the self-interest in it [the soul] and imbues it with a greater
spiritual directee to see that patience is maintained in all knowledge of the mercy of God” (Teresa [a], 165). For
circumstances. Teresa, the experience or “favour” of the rapture is not
Teresa sees that people in the fifth mansion have set what is important. What is really important here is the
their compass on God. Therefore spiritual guidance must surrender that has opened up the capacity for rapture
ensure that the whole of their attention is focused on (Burrows, 99).

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