In the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant symbolizes the grace of contemplation and, as the story illustrates, those who looked after the Ark then symbolize the contemplatives working in this grace today. The analogy of the Ark and contemplation is a good one because the Ark contained all of the jewels and relics of the temple, just as this little love focused on God in the cloud of unknowing contains all of the virtues of the soul, which is God’s spiritual temple.
