When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.1
St John of the Cross has offered some, not inconsiderable, commentary on this matter. A glance is offered here:
The limitations of human nature are such that when the communication and knowledge of the Beloved, which gives more life to the soul and for which she longs ardently, is about to be imparted, she cannot receive it save almost at the cost of her life.2
The reason for this is that such favours cannot be received wholly in the body, for the spirit is elevated to commune with the divine Spirit Who comes to the soul. Thus the soul must in some fashion abandon the body.3
The Beloved revealed to her some rays of His grandeur and divinity and carried her out of herself in rapture and ecstasy: “for they cause me to take flight and go out of myself to supreme contemplation, which is beyond what the sensory part can endure.”4
She would not want to receive the Spirit in the body, for there she cannot receive Him fully, but only in a small degree and with considerable suffering. But she would want to receive Him in the flight of the spirit, outside the body, where she can freely rejoice with Him.5
For a better understanding of the nature of this flight, it should be noted that, as we said, in this visit of the divine Spirit, the spirit of the soul is carried away to communicate with Him, and it abandons the body and ceases to have its feelings and actions in it, for they are in God.6
Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty.7
References:
1. John 16:13
2. St John of the Cross. Spiritual Canticle.(SC) 13:3
3. SC 13:4
4. SC 13:2
5. SC 13:5
6. SC 13:6
7. John 15:5
