Illumination is conventionally regarded as a form of mental life, a state of consciousness exclusive to the mystic. It is his awakening to the Absolute, an esprit de corps with the Absolute. He now sees God in nature, he now gains a radiant consciousness of the otherness of natural things and two thirsts become abundant. The first is a thirst for the admiration and love of nature. He wants to become a parent to nature to safeguard and comfort all humans, animals and plants against cruelty and destruction. The second thirst grows out of the first one and is a thirst for more of God.

In his new adoration for nature, he touches a tree trunk and knows he attained a new friend. He admires a leaf and knows that the universe would have been poorer if the leaf never existed. He does not pick flowers in his garden anymore, for he feels the pain of a flower when picked, and when cutting a dead leaf from a pot-plant, it causes him anguish for the death of something so admirable. And sooner or later he hears the voice of a tree or a plant or an animal talking to him. It is not a voice like that of a human being, but rather a childlike and gentle awareness of the other's existence that trails down the innermost self as an evanescent sensation. It is a knowing of the other's most intimate needs, a knowing of the unknown in the purest and most authentic way.

Like St. Francis of Assisi, he regards every living creature as a theophany of God, and humbly he becomes grateful for sharing life with all creatures of the Absolute. It was also St. Francis who made the sign of the cross so a very aggressive wolf would shut his jaw and calm down. The wolf then came gently closer to St. Francis and rested at his feet. The saint stretched out his hand and the wolf put his paw on the saint's hand. According to legend, St. Francis then said: