What are locutions and how should one respond to them?
Locutions are one of the most misunderstood experiences in the spiritual life. They sit in that delicate space between prayer and revelation, between interior movement and divine initiative. They can be luminous, unsettling, clarifying, or confusing. And because they arise in the quiet interior of the soul, they demand both reverence and discernment.
This post gathers the wisdom of St. Teresa of Ávila, St. John of the Cross, Fr. Thomas Dubay, and other classical spiritual writers to answer two questions:
What exactly are locutions?
How should a sane, grounded person respond to them?
🌿 What Locutions Are
A locution is an interior communication that comes in the form of a “word,” “message,” or “instruction.” It is not a vision. It is not a feeling. It is not imagination. It is an interior word that arrives with a clarity and authority that feels “other.”
Teresa distinguishes three kinds:
Imaginary locutions — as if heard with the ears, though no sound exists.
Imaginary‑intellectual locutions — heard interiorly with vividness, but not through the senses.
Pure intellectual locutions — the highest and most reliable: a direct communication to the soul without sound, image, or sensory form.
She insists that the last type is the one most likely to be authentic because it cannot be produced by imagination or emotion.
Fr. Thomas Dubay, in Authenticity: A Biblical Theology of Discernment, describes locutions as “brief, clear communications that carry a weight disproportionate to their length.” They are concise, authoritative, and impossible to forget.
🌿 Why Locutions Happen
Classical writers agree on this: Locutions are not rewards. They are interventions.
They occur when:
God wants to redirect a soul
God wants to strengthen someone in trial
God wants to correct a misunderstanding
God wants to ask something specific
They are not signs of holiness. They are signs of God’s initiative.
🌿 Teresa’s Tests for Authenticity
Teresa is wonderfully practical. She gives several “tests” to determine whether a locution is from God, the self, or elsewhere.
1. Does it bring peace, clarity, and humility?
Divine locutions leave the soul quiet, grounded, and strengthened.
2. Does it align with Scripture and Church teaching?
God does not contradict Himself.
3. Does it carry authority without force?
Teresa says divine words “command without commanding.” They are gentle but unmistakably firm.
4. Does it produce good fruit?
Authentic locutions lead to:
deeper charity
greater obedience
increased humility
steadiness of soul
5. Can you reproduce it?
If you can “make it happen,” it is not from God. Divine locutions are sovereign; they cannot be summoned.
6. Is it concise and without wasted words?
Teresa says God’s words are “few but full.” Human imagination rambles.
🌿 Fr. Thomas Dubay’s Contribution
Dubay adds psychological clarity. He warns that:
emotionally charged desires can masquerade as divine words
fear can generate false warnings
ego can produce flattering “messages”
scrupulosity can generate harsh, punishing interior voices
His criteria for authenticity echo Teresa but add modern nuance:
A. The message is beyond your natural thought stream.
It interrupts rather than arises from your own mind.
B. It is consistent, stable, and not reactive.
Authentic locutions do not shift with mood.
C. They are accompanied by a grace of understanding.
You “know” what the words mean without explanation.
D. They do not feed ego, fear, or fantasy.
God’s voice never inflates or terrifies.
🌿 How to Respond to Locutions
This is where Teresa, John of the Cross, and Dubay all agree: Respond with humility, caution, and obedience.
1. Do not act immediately.
Authentic locutions withstand time. False ones evaporate or contradict themselves.
2. Bring them to a wise spiritual director.
Teresa submitted every locution to her confessors—even when they misunderstood her. Obedience protects the soul.
3. Do not cling to them.
Teresa warns that attachment to locutions is spiritually dangerous. The goal is God, not His messages.
4. Look for fruit, not fireworks.
If the locution is from God, it will quietly reshape your life.
5. Stay grounded in ordinary prayer.
Locutions are extraordinary. Holiness is ordinary: fidelity, charity, humility, daily prayer.
🌿 When Locutions Are Not from God
Teresa and John of the Cross are blunt: Most locutions are not divine.
They may come from:
imagination
subconscious desires
psychological wounds
spiritual immaturity
the enemy (rare, but Teresa acknowledges it)
Signs of inauthenticity include:
agitation
confusion
self-importance
fear
contradiction
verbosity
pressure to act immediately
God does not rush, confuse, or inflate.
🌿 The Safest Posture
The saints recommend a simple stance:
Receive the words with openness, but act only with discernment.
Or as Teresa puts it: “Take the good and leave the rest.”
Authentic locutions will prove themselves. False ones will fade.
🌿 Final Word
Locutions are neither to be sought nor feared. They are simply one of the many ways God may choose to communicate—rare, delicate, and always secondary to love.
If they come, receive them with reverence. If they do not, you lose nothing. The ordinary path of prayer is more than enough.
image and some research contributed by AI
post inspired by Blest Atheist by Elizabeth Mahlou
Book description
As a young child, outraged by the hypocrisy she finds in a church that does nothing to alleviate the physical and sexual abuse she experiences on a regular basis, Beth delivers an accusatory youth sermon and gets her family expelled from the church. Having locked the door on God, Beth goes on to raise a family of seven children, learn 17 languages, and enjoy a career that takes her to NASA, Washington, and 24 countries. All the time, however, God keeps knocking at the door, protecting and blessing her, which she realizes only decades later. Ultimately, Beth finds God in a very simple yet most unusual way. A very human story, Blest Atheist encompasses the greatest literary themes of all time – alienation, redemption, and even the miraculous. The author’s life experiences, both tragic and tremendous, result in a spiritual journey containing significant ups and downs that ultimately yield great joy and humility.
Book review
Elizabeth Mahlou's autobiography and tale of coming to believe in God has a lot going for it.
But Mahlou's chief reason for writing this very personal tale is not to offer succor, but to tell the story of how an atheist came to believe in God. As a very intelligent, very compassionate nonbeliever-turned-Christian, Mahlou is a captivating example of religion's pull even for those who aren't writhing in self-pity, aren't blind to all but childish reasons for religious belief and aren't obediently following their parents' and parents' belief systems.
This is a tale of belief hard-fought-against, wisely considered, and spiritually experienced.
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