The Degrees of Blessed Life in God Before the Age to Come

Amazement, reverent fear, joyful praise of God, and walking before God encompass above all the life in God. This is because in all of them the human being himself and every creature disappear from thought, and God alone is beheld… The one who walks before God is initiated into knowledge of God’s perfections and all His perfection, and becomes accustomed to praising God. The one who has ascended to this enters even deeper into God and acquires reverent fear. Whoever after this rises above all that is distinguished in God tastes amazement. This is the limit, beyond which one cannot go. Whoever has passed through all these degrees finds himself in the most blessed state and lives in it before the age to come, passing from amazement to reverence, and from this to the praise of God, walking or moving spiritually, as in a house, in Divine vision filled with light and supernal purity. This is life in God! (3, 344–345)