bring man to the first step of the ascent to perfection, to contemplation and union with God. Asceticism is the active part of the spiritual life, the self-coercion and cooperative part that God requires of us. Yet the mystical union with God is also a result of the passive bearing of the work of grace in us. Now God takes the initiative. We have only to follow. It belongs to Him alone. This doesn’t mean that ascetical efforts aren’t aided by grace nor that passivity in the phase of union is inertia.