How often is God anointing a contemplative soul with some very delicate unguent of loving knowledge, serene, peaceful, solitary, and far withdrawn from the senses and from what is imaginable… and then along comes a spiritual director who, like a blacksmith, knows no more than how to hammer and pound with the faculties! … One who so recklessly errs will not escape having to give an account for the damage he has caused.
Saint John of the Cross on those who deter contemplation and enforce discursive meditation always