Let us read again the description of contemplation given in the Dark Night of the Soul [of Saint John of the Cross]: This dark contemplation is described as ‘secret’ since… it is mystical theology, which theologians call secret wisdom, and which, as Saint Thomas says, is communicated and infused into the soul through love. This happens secretly and in darkness, so as to hidden from the work of the understanding and of the other faculties… The Holy Spirit infuses and orders it in the soul… without either its knowledge or its understanding; it is called secret.
Jacques Maritain (1882–1973)