Select Lesser Known Writings

William’s teachings on spiritual life that it contains are invaluable for all those who wish to increase in communion with God and in holiness. In these treatises, he points out how it is necessary, he says, to move on from the "animal" being to the "rational" one in order to attain the "spiritual". To start with, a person accepts the vision of life inspired by faith through an act of obedience and trust. Then, with a process of interiorization in which reason and will play an important role, faith in Christ is received with profound conviction, and one feels a harmonious correspondence between what is believed and what is hoped, as well as the most secret aspirations of the soul, our reason, and our affections. One therefore arrives at the perfection of spiritual life when the realities of faith are a source of deep joy and real and satisfying communion with God. One lives only in love and for love. This is the theme of many mystics throughout Christianity.