deep (though still finite). After our cleaving to creatures has been removed, but before God has entered, the longing of the soul for God contains an extraordinary suffering, an extraordinary emptiness caused by love’s desire for union with the beloved God. Even to long for God, however, is already to possess God, though only through grace rather than through union. By grace, the soul longs for union. In this sense, to desire something other than God blocks the soul from recognizing the true object