Ecstasy
Ecstasy is a Grace by which the Soul is carried away in a rapture beyond the senses where it conTemples God and can sometimes see certain heavenly realities such as the Angels, the saints of Paradise, etc.
In "The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me"
- The rapture in Jesus (Ecstasy of Maria Valtorta).[1]
- Jesus is physically transfigured by his Ecstasy with the Father.[2]
- We, unintentionally, have crossed the impassable threshold after having removed the triple veil set to protect the mystery, and we have seen what the High Priest himself does not see when entering the Holy of Holies. We have seen the ineffable loves of God with God. We are not permitted to spy on them any longer. The power of God could punish our bold eyes that have seen the Ecstasy of the Son of God.[3]
- Description of Jesus in Ecstasy.[4]
In the other works of Maria Valtorta
The Notebooks of 1943
- Catechesis of May 22: - If you want to talk about Ecstasy, in the sense it is usually understood, it is certain that I have never experienced that. If by Against you mean this impression of Ecstasy, in which human Vitality is not suppressed, but rather concentrated at a single point, polarized in it, so that everything else loses its value, and one lives in everyday things as if surrounded by a garment that isolates and protects us, wrapping us like a veil of Fire inside which one can only move and act while fixing this focus that attracts us, then Yes, I have experienced that several times. The whole world pressing all around us loses its shape and value to the point that it appears, for several moments, as a sort of chimera, while the true reality is what the powers of our Soul adore, absorb, live. I don’t know if I have managed to explain myself. I believe that if it lasted, it would kill us in a short time. (p.30)[5]
- Catechesis of June 18: - If you believed with the strength that the Mystery deserves (the Eucharist), you would feel, in receiving me, the life entering you. When I approach you, you should feel burn like near a blazing furnace. My Presence in you should plunge you into an Ecstasy that would carry the depth of your spirit into a rapture of Paradise. (p.87)[6]
- Catechesis of August 9: - The arms raised of the Soul meet the outstretched arms of God, Maria. And when they touch, brush quickly, it is Ecstasy on earth; when they embrace durably, it is the endless blessedness of heaven, of my heaven which I have created for you, my Beloved, and which will bring me an abundance of joy when it is filled with all my beloved children […] This morning, when I—the Eucharist—came to you, you shuddered with Ecstasy because you saw me who gave myself to you. But that is nothing, a small grain of Ecstasy thrown in your Heart. Only one, so that you would not be reduced to ashes, and you felt it... You believed you would die of emotion. But when the moment comes, I will pour into you a torrent of joy, because it will no longer be necessary to preserve your human life and we will leave together. (pp. 214 - 215)[7]
- Catechesis of October 11: - For Ecstasy is not only the fact of staying outside the senses by the joy of conTempling visions of Paradise. Ecstasy, and from a spiritual point of view, an Ecstasy much deeper than the first, is also to be isolated from moral pain, in addition to that of material life, by speaking to me and hearing me speak, but without losing the use of the senses. This one is deeper, for it is given only by love. Contemplative Ecstasy is a work willed by the will of God, who wishes that one of his creatures have the vision of heavenly things, either to draw it closer to him, or as a Reward for its love. On the other hand, this Ecstasy of fusion rather than contemplation, is a work accomplished by Grace thanks to the initiative of the loving creature, having reached such power of love that it can only nourish, breathe, act with love and in love (p.351).[8]