Ways of Mental Prayer

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THE WAYS0"

MENTAL PRAYER


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THE WAYSOF

MENTAL PRAYER

flyTHE RT. REV. DOM VITAL IS LEHODEY

ABBOT 0F BRICQUEBEC, O.C.R.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCHBY

A MONK OF MOUNT MELLERAY

(Pnm. ArIQrU 61 Slip.)

DUBLINM. H. GILL 0- SON LTD.

50 UPPER O'CONNELL STREETI960


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'Jn~ll ObSt4t:JOANNES WATERS,

Censor. Theol. Deput"lml>rlml .l)otut :

f EDUARDUS,Archiep. Dublinen,

Hibernise Primas.Dublini, dill 20 MaTti;, 1924.

PIUIIITKD AND BOUND IN THK JUtPU.UC OF IRIDAMDBY

II. H. GILL AND OS, LTD DualU.


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TOSAINT THER~SE OF THE CHILD JESUS

AND OF THE HOLY FACE" THE LITTLE FLOWER OF JESUS"

THIS TRANSLATIONIN THE FIRM HOPE THAT ALL ITS READERS

MAY GET A SHARE OF HER

.. SHOWER OF ROSES"IS DEDICATED

BYTHE TRANSLA T01


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BREF DC S. S. PIE X

DILECTO FILIO VITALI LEHODEYABBATI EX ORDINB CISTERCIENSIUM RBFORMATORUM

PIUS P. P. x.

Dilecte Fili, saIutem et apostolicam benedictionem.Is tuus liber de us Voies de l'oraison mentale, cujus

Nobis dedisti exemplar, quanquam in argumento sacrisauctoribus usitato versatur, non tu tamen rem super-vacaneam fecisti scribendo; imo valde utilern, nec solumreligiosis hominibus, sed etiam omnibus quicumqueperfectionem christiana: vita: assequi contendunt. Certede opere isto tale intelligentium est judicium, quibustua et doctrina et peritia jure probatur, Nos igiturcum gratias tibi agimus, tum g ratutamur ; et quos exlabore tuo fructus communis pietatis expectas, ii utuberes sequantur exoptamus. Divinorum autem rnu-nerurn auspicem, et benevolentire Nostne testem, tibi,dilecte fili, apostolicam benedictionem peramanter im-pertimus.

Datum Romee apud S. Petrum, die XIII DecembrisMCMVIII, Pontificatus Nostri anna sexto,

PIUS P. P. X


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(TRANSLA TIOlV)

BRIEF OF HIS HOLINESS PIUS X.

TO OUR BELOVED SON VITALIS LEHODEYABBOT OF THE ORDER OF REFORMED CISTERCIANS

PIUS X. POPE

Beloved Son, health and apostolic benediction.Your book On the Ways of Mental Prayer, of which

you have sent us a copy, treats of a subject familar tospiritual writers. Nevertheless, by writing it you havenot laboured in vain; on the contrary, you haveaccomplished a work very useful, not only to religious,but to all who, in any walk of life, are striving afterchristian perfection. Such, assuredly, is the judgmentwhich all enlightened persons, who do justice to yourknowledge and experience, must pass upon this book.

We, therefore, both thank and congratulate you, andit is Our earnest desire that your work may produceabundantly all those fruits you expect from it, for thespiritual advantage of all.

As a pledge of the Divine favour, and in testimonyof Our benevolence, We impart to you with all Ourheart, dear son, Our apostolic benediction.

Given at Rome, at St. Peter's this ijth day ofDecember, IgoB, in the sixth year of Our Pontificate.

PIUS POPE, X


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LETTER OF THE MOST REV. AUGUSTINE MARREBISHOP OF CONSTANCE

ABBOT GENERAL OF THE REFORMED CISTERCIANS

RIGHT REVEREND FATHER,We learn with pleasure that your treatise On tM

Ways of Mental Prayer is at length about to be printed.We have no need to approve this work, which has

already received the approbation and the praise. ofour General Chapter j but we wish once again to,congratulate you upon this book inspired by an.enlightened zeal, and we fervently pray that it maycontribute to revive the spirit of prayer in the souls ofits readers. + AUGUSTINE MARRE,

Bishop of Constance, Abbot General.

_ ,LETTER OF THE RIGHT REV. JOSEPH GUERARD

BISHOP OF COUTANCES AND AVRANCHES

COUTANCBS,27th October, 1907.

RIGHT RBVEREND FATHER,

I feel very happy in giving you the approbationwhich you ask for your work.The Reverend Father Superior of the Diocesan

Seminary whom I commissioned to examine it writesto me:

.. This work, the doctrine of which appears to me to


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x APPROBATION~with a guide and support to enable her to recogniseher path, to persevere in it, to look forward and toascend still higher. You have succeeded.Itis a nand-book you say. Yes, it has the character-

istics of a hand-book: it is practical, and purposelyavoids controverted and purely speculative questions;its mode of exposition is very clear and renders thehighest teachings accessible to the humblest readers;finally, its doctrine is perfectly safe, grounded as italways is upon the most competent authorities.

Publish your work, and may God give it his bless-ing! In this age of hatred, of tyranny over consciences,of sensuality, materialism and folly, it is well toattach ourselves to Him who is: tor He alone is ever-lasting.

Receive, Right Reverend and very dear Father, thereligious homage of my most affectionate respect.

1 ft ALEXANDER LE Roy,Bishop of Alinda, Sup. Gen. C. s. Sp.

LETTER OF MONSIGNOR LEGOUXPROTONOTARY APOSTOLIC

PARIS,1 S t l J e ~ e n l b e r , 1 9 0 /

RIGHT REVEREND FATHER,Your deep devotion towards her, whom we shall

50011 call" The Blessed Mary Magdalen Postel," and'your friendship for the humble author of her ,. Life,"


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APPROBATIONS xiinduced you to -ask a few lines from me upon yourwork, The Ways of Mental Prayer.

Your desire evidently was to obtain for your readersand for yourself a special blessing from that heroicLover of our Saviour, whose whole life, like that of herDivine Master, was "one perpetual prayer." I con-gratulate you and thank you in her name: who,indeed, better than she could understand and relisha work so pious and so learned?

How often while her wonderful cause was underexamination, how often while writing the "story ofher life," have I not regrelted that her invinciblehumility made her observe an absolute silence con-cerning the special ways by which Our Divine Lordguided her in her interior life! What a powerfulcharm and what a precious instruction in fact theknowledge of her inward life would have procured us!

Now, whilst reading your work with much pleasure,I seemed to discover on every page the key to themysteries of the holiness of that life, "unique in itskind": it is thus, said I to myself many a time, thatshe must have prayed, since it is thus she lived.

Starting from this principle, your book seemed to mea real model, capable by its simplicity, its clearness andits method of serving as a guide, not only to those whoare mere beginners in this holy exercise of mentalprayer, but also to souls the most experienced in thesecrets of the mystical life.

Better still: the multitude of .. Manuals" and or" Methods' of mental prayer which have been pub-lished un to the present, and with which. through duty


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xii APPROBATIONSor opportunity, I became acquainted, never gave me soclear, so simple an idea of the necessity and the facilityof performing this important exercise as does thiswork, and I am persuaded that it is destined to pro-duce the same impression upon all who shall have thegood.fortune to read it, to study it and to use it astheir ordinary manual. Just as all those, whom" Providence will favour with the grace to read the lifeof the Venerable Mary Magdalen Postel.. will becomealmost. of necessity better and more desirous ofadvancing in the path of christian and religious per-fection," so those who know your book will feel them-selves drawn to the love and practice of mental prayer,and of those "sublime virtues of which it is the bestschool."

May that Venerable Servant of God deign to blessand thank you herself for the good you have doneme,. and obtain for you the legitimate satisfactionof seeing what you call your "modest work" knownand relished by all.I am, Right Reverend Father, with profoundrespectand most sincere affection,

Your very humbleA. M. LEGOUX,

Protonotary A/JDsttlli~.


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LETTER OF THE REV. FATHER AUG. POULAIN. S.).AUTHOR OF THE "GRACES OF PRAYER"

PARIS, 1St October, 1907.RIGHT REVEREND FATHER,

The peace of Our Lord be with you.You are performing a great act of humility when

you ask me to place at the head of your book a'letter introducing it to the public. A bishopwould, in such a case, be qualified to speak; whenpronouncing judgment, he might hope for a specialassistance of the Holy Ghost. As for me, who amof such small consequence in the Church of Christ,I can hardly reckon upon anything more than mynatural lights. I will try, however, to make use ofthem.

Now, they assure me that your work is an excel-lent one. Your descriptions of divine graces areexact; it is easily perceived not only that you haveconsulted books, but that you have also come in con-tact with favoured souls, which is an indispensablecorrective of theoretical knowledge. Your asceticcounsels are very solid. You unceasingly urgeyour readers to abnegation, to detachment from thecreature, to the love of God and to the virtues

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Xl" APPl


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Pt{EFACEST. ALPHONSUS rei ates 1 that St. Teresa would havewished to ascend to the top of a high mountain, andbe able to make her voice heard by the whole world,for the sole purpose of crying out to it: "Pray,pray, pray." She had rightly understood thewords Our Lord addresses to each of us: We oughtalways to pray and not to faint." 2

In the spiritual life there are two great principleswhich should never be forgotten: Without gracewe can do nothing; 3 with it we can do all things.4Sometimes it anticipates our desires; ordinarily,God waits till we ask for it. This is a general lawthus expressed by Our Lord: "Ask, and it shallbe given to you." 5 Prayer is, therefore, not onlya precept, it is a necessity. God places the treasureof His graces at our disposal, and its key is prayer.You desire more faith, more hope, more love; " ask,and it shall be given to you." Your good resolu-tions remain sterile, resulting always in the same

St. Liguori, True Spouse o f Jesus Christ, xx. Oportet semper orare et non deficere. Luke, xviii. I.3 Sine me nihil potestis facere. John, xv, 5.' Omnia possum in eo qui me conforta t, Philip, iv. 13.5 Petit .. et dabitur vobis. Matthew, vii. 7

xv


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XVI PREFACEfailures: .. ask, and it shall be given to you."Precepts are numerous, virtue painful, temptationseductive, the enemy ruthless, the will weak: .. ask,and it shall be given to you." Prayer will drawdown into your soul the omnipotence of God, .. itis stronger than all the demons." 1-But 1 prayand 1 do not obtain.-" It is because you askamiss." 2-1 have been asking now for a longtime.-" Ask" again, "seek, knock" ;3 reanimateyour desires, importune heaven, make the voice ofyour soul loud and shrill as a piercing cry, and,provided that your prayer possesses the necessaryconditions, .. you shall ask whatever you will, andit shall be done unto you." 4-The Master of grace,Truth itself has pledged His word for it, a promisesupremely encouraging, the only reproach Hemakes us is that we do not ask enough ; 5 apromise too, which leaves faint-heartedness noexcuse; for we can always pray, and nothing iseasier. The mind remains without light, becauseit does not draw nigh to God; 6 the heart is dried upbecause the soul has forgotten to eat her bread,?and the will is hard as iron, and resists gracebecause we have neglected to heat it in the fire of _prayer. This is the doctrine which St. Augustinepreaches: "The body is nourished by material

St. Bernard, De modo bene fI;fI. "Oratio dsemoniis omnibusmalis praevalet," c. 49-

Jac., iv. 3.3 Malth., vi. 7.4 Joan., xv. 7.

5 Joan., xvi. 24 , Ps., xxxiii. 6, and Jac. i. s., Ps., d. S.


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PREFACE xviifood, and the interior man by player."l St.Chrysostom declares with not less ener gy: "As thebody cannot live without the soul, so the soulwithout prayer is dead and fetid." 2 And St.Liguori gives us this memorable admonition: "Hewho prays shall certainly be saved, he who does notpray shall certainly be damned." 3The ordinary Christian must have recourse toprayer, in order to fulfil his duties and to conquertemptation. Much more must a religious givehimself to it; for, in addition to the ordinaryprecepts, he has to observe his vows and his rules,and has bound himself to tend to perfection, by everseeking to die to self, and so to advance ever in virtueand in holy love. Such an enterprise, the noblestand most fruitful of all, but also the most elevatedabove the reach of human weakness, requires abroad and continuous flow of graces, and conse-quently a superabundance of prayer. Besides, is itnot meet and just that a soul consecrated to Godshould seek the presence and the conversation ofher Divine Spouse? This is true for even theactive religious Orders; how much more is it so fora contemplative Order like ours, all whose observ-ances are ordained with a view to a life of prayer I

Sicut escis alitur caro, ita orationibus homo interior nutriturSI. Aug., De Sal. doc., c. ii. 8.

2 Sicut corpus sine anima non pot est vivere, sic anima sineora tioue mortua "st et graviter olens. St. Chrys., D, o,.ati"" D. b. 1St.

J St. Liguori. Great .tIeans of Saloatio .. , c. I at end.


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xviii PREFACENone have so many motives and means as we, tomake us conceive an affection for prayer, give our-selves to it with love and seek, above all things,union with God. The world, alas! absorbed byits pursuits and its pleasures, hardly ever thinksof God. Martha, overburdened with the piouslabours to which she devotes herself all day long inthe service of God and of souls, has but little leisurefor repose and contemplation. Our vocation isthat of Mary, who, keeping at Our Lord's feet,looks upon Him, loves Him, listens to Him andspeaks to Him; our function in the house of God isto be attached to the person of Our Divine Master,to have frequent and familiar intercourse with Him,to be united to Him in a life of prayer; we arecontemplatives by the peculiar duties of our profes-sion. Can any lot be more sweet or more desir-able?

It is true that we are also penitents. But penanceand contemplation are, so far as we are concerned,as closely connected as our two eyes or our twohands. We have need of one and we cannotdo without the other. They are like the twotables of the law: it is impossible 1for us to pleaseGod without our austerities, and not less impossibleto be acceptable to Him without our life of prayer;and, of course, it is not enough to give to God onlythe half ofwhat we have promised. They are the twowings which can raise us from earth and bear us For Cistercians. of whom the author is speaking here.-lr ......


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PREFACE xix

aloft to God, but only by acting in harmony andlending each other mutual support. Penance, by itsfasts, watchings, toils and, above all, by interiormortification, detaches the soul from all things andallows her to raise herself freely towards God bycontemplation; the life of prayer, in its turn, in-(lames us with zeal for penance; and at times, inthe hour of dryness and sterility, it may itself benot the least of our sacrifices. These are two sisterswho live together in perfect concord, and do notwant to be separated. Penance, assuredly, is nobleand fruitful; contemplation is incomparably morebeautiful, richer and happier; the former tears uspainfully away from earth, the latter unites us toGod.

Of all the ways which obedience opens up to usto lead us to God, the shortest, the easiest and themost certain is a life of prayer. Our life may bevery penitential, at least corporally, and yet not beby any means perfect; but no one can becourageously and perseveringly a man of prayerwithout becoming a saint. Faith, hope, charity,humility, all the virtues bloom easily in prayer,and are there in turn developed. A single out-burst of the heart may even express them all at onetime; and it is the best exercise of perfection. Andwhen one's prayer is ended, for prayer is not theonly duty even in the life of a monk, we remainenlightened by faith and rich in graces, whichenable us to act supernaturally, to suffer with fruit,


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xx PREFACEto 'Correct our faults, to grow in virtue and to dowhatever God wills j during our actions we will bein touch with God, because prayer shall have filledour mind and our heart with Him. Thus it wasthat forty days' conversation with the Lord uponthe holy mountain left upon the brow of Moses t\farays of light j 1the presence of God, with which hewas fiJled-within,.being reflected upon his counten-ance, and doubtless also in his words and works.Such ought we ourselves to be, angels at prayerand men of God in our conduct. St. Peter ofAlcantara strongly reproves those who, .. afterhaving experienced the inestimable advantages ofprayer, and recognised that the whole conduct ofthe spiritual life depends upon it, take it into theirheads -that prayer alone is everything,arid give way to relaxation in all their other duties.For all the other virtues ad: as a support to prayer,and, if this foundation happens to be wanting, thewhole edifice must fall. When an instru-ment is played upon, it is not a single string, butseveral sounding together, which produces theharmony. ., A clock stops altogether if asingle piece only of the mechanism is out oforder ."2 Thus, too, the spiritual life cannot geton if a-single wheel be-wanting, whether that wheelbe prayer or works.

. I EJr;odu5, xxxiv. 2!)- St. Peter of Alcantara p,.aye,. and Meditation, znd part,c. v. 7th counsel.


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PREFACE xxiPrayer should, therefore, nourish in us faith,

hope and charity, develop the other virtues andeffectuaIIy tend to make us grow in holiness. Thisis its end, and by this we can judge whether ourprayer is well made, and whether we devote enoughtime to prayer. Bodily health requires that nutri-ment, work and rest should bear a due proportionto each other j so too, sanctity demands that thesoul be nourished by prayer, should labour atacquiring virtues and should have rest in God,who is found in prayer. We know that the bodyhas all it wants, when it can do its work withoutdifficulty; and the interior man is sufficientlynourished by prayer, when he shows vigour in culti-vating virtue, bearing trials and making sacrifices.On the contrary, if he has lost his strength and hisenergy, it is food that he wants j he requires to praymore or to pray better.

In the beginning of this work on mental prayer,we 'deemed it well to remind our readers of thenecessity of prayer in general, and of the supremelyimportant part it plays in the work of our sanctifi-cation. If we wished to describe all the exercisesof the contemplative life, it would have been suffi-cient to annotate the short but solid treatise, whichour holy father St. Bernard, or, rather, some otherauthor, has composed on this subject so full {ifinterest for us. "One day, when engaged inmanual work, he began to reflect upon' the exercisesof the spiritual man, and four degrees suddenly


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XXII PREFACEpresented themselves to his mind: reading, medi-tation, the prayer of petition and contemplation.Here we have the ladder of the dwellers in thecloister, by means of which they ascend from earthto heaven.l Reading seeks the sweetnessof the beatific life, meditation finds it, prayer askfO T it, contemplation tastes it. Seek by read-ing, and you shall find by meditation j knock byprayer, and the door shall be opened to you bycontemplation." !I This would certainly be an in-teresting study, but very long and too complex fora single treatise. 'Ve refer our readers, therefore,for information concerning our other exercises ofpiety to the Directory.s which treats sufficiently ofthem, and in order not to extend that work alreadytoo long, we thought it better to treat, in thisseparate work, of mental prayer and of all the de-velopments so grave a subject implies.

Mental prayer is, in fact, the soul of the contem-plative life. It is this exercise, which fertilises,animates and renders ten times more efficaciousall our other means of attaining to union with God.Without this, the Divine Office, which occupies soconsiderable a portion of our day, and in which thesame expressions so continually recur, would run.some risk of producing a mere system of routine,distracting thoughts, disgust and weariness j but,when once the fire of meditation has inflamed the

St. -Bernard (?). ScaZa Claustralium, c. i. Ibid., c. ii,IDired. Spirit. des Cist. Rif. (Trans.),


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PREFACE xxiiiheart, the holy liturgy is no longer a dead letter, itspeaks to our mind and heart, and everything in ussings the praises of God. So, likewise, without thehunger after God derived from mental prayer,spiritual reading is frigid and almost unfruitful;with it, spiritual books move us and not merely shedtheir light upon the intellect, but make it penetrateeven to the depths of the heart and of the will.Nothing is more powerful than the Holy Sacrificeand the Sacraments; yet even they never produceso much fruit as when fervent prayer has thrown thedoors of the soul wide open to the effusions of grace.A life of prayer it is, which raises a religious abovethe paltry thoughts of earth and the pitiful cares ofnature; this it is, which establishes us in God, andmakes us live in recollection and watchfulness overourselves; this it is, which communicates to us thesupernatural spirit of devotion, thus vivifying ourfasts, our watchings, our manual labours and allour works; without it, our observances, admirablyconceived though they be, would run the risk ofbecoming a body without a soul.

Since, then, mental prayer is so vital an elementin our contemplative life, we ought to esteem it, tolove it, and to apply ourselves to it with a holyardour. But it is a divine art, and by no meansone of the easiest to acquire. Beginners require tolearn a method of prayer, just as even the most in-telligent apprentice must be initiated into the secretsof his trade. They will find it useful to know the


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xxiv PREFACEvarious processes which may serve as substitutesfor meditation, in order not to remain idle when this.latter fails them. Those who are making progress,as well as those who are still more advanced in theways of prayer, have need to know when theyshould pass on to affective prayer or to active con-templation, and how they should conduct them-selves therein. Later on, should it please God toraise souls to the different degrees of mystical con-templation,-and this ought not to be of rareoccurrence amongst religious, especially In aconternplati ve Order, -they will need to have aclear light thrown upon their road and an experi-enced guide to direct their steps. Otherwise thesoul would be exposed to all kinds of illusions.This is what makes many promising beginnersstand still upon the road, or keep performing thegoose-step upon the same spot without ever advanc-ing; they have not a sufficient knowledge of thisart of prayer, which should be the groundwork oftheir whole life. It would be inexact to say thatthe evil arises wholly from ignorance, for the weak-ness of the will has a great share in it; but ignor-ance is the primary pest, and, so to speak, a funda-mental evil.It is true that good books treating of mentalprayer abound and are in everybody's hands.Nevertheless, the greater number of authors hardlytreat of anything but the method of prayer which isproper to beginners; and it is difficult to find a clear


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PREFACE xxv.and precise explanation of the kinds of prayerwhich, without yet leaving the common ways, aresuitable to souls more advanced. Many authorshave, as it were wantonly, confused this matter,which is, nevertheless, very simple; they havecreated a disconcerting confusion by their paralleldescriptions of acquired contemplation and infusedcontemplation. They are a labyrinth, especiallywhen there is a question of passing from thecommon to the more elevated ways of prayer. Theauthors have to be patiently studied, collated withand controlled by each other, in order to bringthem into harmony, and to discern the truth amidstsuch various systems. A study so arduous has allthat is required to repel even the best constitutedminds.

The author of this modest work thinks, therefore,he is rendering a helpful service to his brethrenby offering them a clear, simple, and short expla-nation of all this matter, a little guide in the ways ofprayer, a handbook wherein they will find practicalcounsels for all their needs, according as theyadvance in the common kinds of prayer, and even,should it so please God, in mystical contemplation;so that they will have always at hand briefly stated,the information they should otherwise have to seekfor in twenty different books.

This work is not presented as a scientific treatise,and contains nothing very new, except, perhaps,the order in which the subject is treated. The


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xxvi PREFACEwriter made use of all the treatises on prayer whichhe was able to procure. Sometimes he quotesthem, sometimes he summarises and combinesthem, and he has said hardly anything of his own,like the bee which goes pilfering from flower toflower, gathering its honey wherever it can find it.

His sole desire is to excite souls to mentalprayer, to recall to their mind the beaten tracks, aswell as the less explored paths which lead to unionwith God, to put them in mind of the dispositionswhich secure success in prayer, of how they shouldconduct themselves in it, of the fruit they shoulddraw from it, of the necessity of making perfectionkeep pace with prayer, and thus to give a freshimpulse in our Order to the contemplative life, and,by its means, to those lofty virtues of which mentalprayer is the best school; for, it was in meditationthat the Psalmist warmed his heart and inflamedhis soul with the fire of divine love.

May God deign to bless this modest work andcommunicate to it the grace to revive in many soulstheir zeal for mental prayer.

The work is divided into three parts, in whichwe shall successively study prayer in general, ordi-nary prayer, and mystical prayer.


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CONTENTSPRBPACa

PAGE

XV

FIRST PARTON PRAYER IN GENERAL

CHAP. I.-OF PRAYER, AND ESPECIALLY 01'VOCAL PRAYER ib.

f.-Notion of Prayer in General II.-Vocal Prayer and Mental Prayer 5 III'-Attention in Vocal Prayers 8

CHAP. 1I.-MENTAL PRAYER-ITs OBJECT. 12 L-Of Mental Prayer in General. .ib 1I.-0f Ordinary Mental Prayer 13 IlL-Of the End of Mental Prayer 14

CHAP. IlL-ADVANTAGES AND NECBSSITY OPMENTAL PRAYER 18

I.-On the Part of the Understanding. ib. Il.-On the Part of the Will 21 IlL-What the Saints have Thought of

Meatal Prayer 25J[J[vii


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xxviii CONTENTSPAGK

CHAP. lV.-THE ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS INMENTAL PRAYER 34

I.-Dispositions of the Soul I1.-0ur Monastic Observances IlL-Mental Prayer Itself

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CHAP. V.-CAUSES OF FAILURE IN MENTAll'RAYER 49

1.-Distractions ih. II.-Want of Sincere Devotion and of

Strong Resolutions 52 IlL-Illusions in Mental Prayer "4 IV.-Bodily Indisposition 58

CHAP. VI.-CONSOLATIONS AND DRYNESS 60 i.-Their Nature 6J 11.- The Origin and Tendency of Cen-

solations and Desolations 63 IlL-Practical Conduct 69

SECOND PARTON ORDINARY MENTAL PR:\YER 83

CHAP. I.-PRAYER OF MEDITATION- COMPENDIUMOF THE METHOD

I.-General Idea H.-Compendium of the Method IlL-Two Short Explanations~ TV.-Some Counsels

85ib.8891g6


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xxixPAGE

CHAP. 11.- OF THE E:-;THANCE INTO l\lEDITATION lOS I.--~'ecessity of the Immedi-ate Pre-

paration . ih. 11.- First Manner of Making the Im-

mediate Preparation 106 IlL-Second Way to commence our

Prayer - Of Ihe Composition ofPlace and other Preludes r IS

CONTENTS

CHAP. TTL-BODY OF THE MEDITATION-CON-SIDERATIONS 118

I.-Optional Acts which may serve as anIntroduction to the Body of theMeditation Of Adoration ib.

II.-Of Considerations-their Role andExtent. 120

IlL-Practical Way of Making Con-siderations 124

IV.-Self-Examination 131

CHAP. IV.-BODY OF THE MEDITATION (Contillued).AFFECTIO:-;S 133 I.-Their Importance ih. IT.-Of the Affections which Arise from

the Subject of our Prayer 135 III. --Affections Foreign, to the Subject. 136

CIL\P. V.-BODY OF THE l\IEDITATION (COlLtillued).PETITIONS - RESOLUTIONS 149

I.-Petitions ih. II.-Of Resolutions. 154

CHAP. VL-CONCLVSION OF THE MEDITATION 161


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xxx CONTENTSt'AGB

CHAP. Vll.-EQUIVALBNIS OF MEDITATION 163s I.-Contemplation. ih. 1I.--Application of the Senses 16:-l III.-Examination after the Manner of a

Meditation 170 IV.-Vo.:al Prayer Meditated 172 V.-Meditative Reading 175

CHAP. VIIl.-OF AFFECTIVE PRAYER 178 I.-Description of this Prayer ih. H.-Practical Rules 181

CHAP. IX.-PRAYER OF SIMPLICITY IgC I.-What the Prayer of Simplicity is. ih. I I.-Active Contemplation 192 III.- The Prayer of Simplicity is not a

Species of Mystical Contemplation 197 IV.-Advantages of this kind of Prayer 199 V.- When should the Soul pass on to

this form of Prayer? VI. Rules of Conduct

20l208

VII.-Employment of Affective Prayer 214THIRD PART

ON MYSTICAL PRAYER 217CHAP. I.-UTILITY OF THIS STUDy-FREQUENCY

OF THIS PRAYER th.CHAP. II-THE PASSAGEFROMORDINARYPRAYER

TO MYSTICALCONTElfPLATlON--ACTIVEPREPARATION

I.-Negative Preparation H.-Positive Preparation .


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CONTENTSCHAP. I1I.-PASSIVE PURiFICATIONS

ART.I.-Passive Purification of the Senses ib. I.-Notion of this State ib. H.-Explanation of this State 252 HI. - Sufferings of this State . 256 IV.-Advantages of this State 264 V.-Conduct to be Observed . 267 VI.-Duration of these Trials . 274

ART. I1.-Passive Purgation of the Spirit 277 I.-When it takes place and what it is ib. H.-Sufferings of this State 280

CHAP. IV.-OF MYSTICAL CONTEMPLATION 287 I.-Supernatural or Passive Prayer ib. H.-How in this state God is known in

a way that is ineffable 294 I1I.-How God in this state is ineffably

loved. 299 IV.-How in this state the presence of

God is felt 302 V.-Influenc

SHAP. V.-DIFFERENT KINDS OF MYSTICALPRAYER 30g

SHAP. VJ.-OF THE STATE OF QUIET 313 I.-Description of this State ill. II.-Influence of the state of Quiet upon

the Faculties. 3J 5 HL- Various Forms of Quietude 326 IV.-Genesis, Progress and Cessation 327 V.-Practical Direction 330


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xxxii CONTENTS"AGI!

CHAP. VIJ.-UNlON OF ALL THE POWERS OF THESOUL 339

CHAP. VII I.-ECSTATIC UNION 3Sr

CHAP. IX.- TRANSFORMING UNION 361

CHAP. X.-SPIRITUAL ADVANTAGES OF MYSTICALPRAYER

CHAP. XL-jOYS AND SUFFERINGS 378CHAP. XII. -DANGERS AND ILLUSIONS 388

I.-Dangers ts. H.-Illusions 392

CHAP. XIII.-THE DESIRE OF CONTEMPLATION 399

CHAP, XIV.-CONCLUSION . - 405


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FIRST PARTON PRAYER IN GENERAL

CHAPTER IOF PRAYER AND ESPECIALLY OF VOCAL

PRAYER

I.-NOTION OF PRAYER IN GENERAL.IN its widest sense, "prayer is an elevation of thesoul to God." 1 This formula, borrowed from St.John Damascene, has become classical.

The soul, therefore, leaves aside the uselessthoughts, the nothings, the frivolities, which toooften invade it; it abandons the thoughts whichare good at another time, such as all questions ofbusiness, of work, of office; it raises itself abovethe earth and the things of earth; its mind and itsaffections ascend to heaven; they stop not even atthe choirs of Angels and of Saints, unless indeed,our prayer is directly addressed to them; they ascendeven to God, they rest in God, ascensus mentis inDeum, There, fixed in God, we look affectionately

Ascensus mentis in Deum, St. John Dam., D~ Fide Orlh.,I. iii, c. 24


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2 ON PRAYER IN GENERALat God.! we enter into cowuersatio with God,2 andGod deigns to listen to us with love, as a father tohis children, and to reply to us by granting usinterior lights and affections.-Oh, to what aheight does prayer raise the soul, and what anhonour it is for a being sprung from nothing!

Prayer, in its widest sense, does four things: itadores, asks pardon, gives thanks, and begs forgraces.

IO.-It adores. By prayer we kneel before theinfinite Majesty and perfections of God, makingourselves quite little, we contemplate, admire,believe, hope, have confidence, love, praise, re-joice in the glory which God finds in Himself andin His creatures, we are affiicted to see Him solittle known and so much offended, desire to glorifyHim and make Him glorified, and arm ourselveswith a holy zeal. Or, considering God as itsCreator and its sovereign Master, the devout souladores Him, and subjects itself humbly to Him,it admires and blesses the ways of Providence, itresolves to obey, and even reaches to the height ofabandoning itself with confidence and love into thehands of God.2o.-It asks pardon. Recalling all its years in

the bitterness of a contrite and humbled heart, thesoul confesses its faults before God, feels shameand confusion, expresses its repentance, appeals to

I Oratio est namque mentis ad Deum affectuosa intentio. St.Aug., Serm, ix. n. 3-

Oratio conversatio sermocinatioque cum Deo est. St. Greg.Nyss. Orat. I. tit! Orat. Donr.-Oratio colloqui est cum Deo.St. Chrys., Hom. xxx. i" Gna.


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OF VOCAL PRAYER 3the Divme mercy, takes salutary resolutions, per-forms penance, and accepts willingly the austeritiesprescribed by the Rule and the crosses sent byProvidence.

3 .-It traces up to God with thanksgiving all thegeneral and particular benefits which it has re-ceived from Him. And often, while it overflowswith sentiments of gratitude, struck by the Divinegoodness and infinite charity of which all thesebenefits are the manifestation, it rises easily fromgratitude to love, thus discharging the primaryfunction of prayer.

4.-Finally, the soul begs new graces, temporaland spiritual, for herself and for all who are dearto her, pleading in turn the cause of God Himself,of His Church, militant or suffering, of her owncountry, of the clergy and religious, especially ofher own Order, of the just and of sinners, &c., &c.

To repeat, prayer is an elevation of the soul toGod, to adore Him, to thank Him, to beg pardonand ask for graces.

Schram 1 makes a very just remark which heborrows from Suarez.f "Prayer can apply itselfto anyone of the acts we have just enumerated inpreference to any of the others. Nay, more, vocalor mental prayer, however prolonged, may limititself to a single one of these acts, because there isno obligation nor necessity to join them alwaystogether, and also because it may happen thatmore fruit, more fervour 'and devotion may be

Schram, Ed. Vives, 1874 Theol.Myst . t. lsI xxii. his. Suarez, De Relilf I. ii. c. 3-


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4 ON PRAYER IN GENERALderived from the continuous dwelling upon a singleone than from dwelling upon them all at one time.In such a case we ought to confine ourselves tothat one which is more profitable, without trying togo through them all in the one prayer."

It must, however, be noted, that, if we confineourselves to praising, to thanking God, and ex-pressing our repentance for the past, we haveindeed performed excellent acts of virtue, but wehave not been praying, in the strictest sense of theword, for the first three functions belong to prayeronly when taken in its widest sense. In its strictestsense, it consists in petition, and may be thendefined with St. John Damascene: "The askingof seemly things from God," 1that is, things whichmay glorify God and do good to our soul, andhence whicl: are conformable to the Divine good-pleasure. It is also defined: an act by which theintelligence as interpreter of the will expresses adesire of the soul and strives to induce God togrant it to us.

Prayer, considered as petition, consists entirelyin expressing to God some desire in order that Hemay hear it favourably; a real desire is, therefore.its primary and essential condition; without this,we are merely moving the lips, going through aform of words which is not the expression of ourwill; and thus our prayer is only an appearancewithout reality. The way, then, to excite our-selves to pray, to put life and fervour into ourprayer, and to make of it a cry which, breaking

Petitio decentium a Deo. De Fide Or/A. 1. iii. c. 2+


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OF VOCAL PRAYER 5forth from the depths of the soul, penetrates evento heaven, is to conceive the real desire mentionedabove, to excite it, to cherish it; for the fervour ofour prayer will be in proportion to the strength ofthe desire we have to be heard; just as what wehave but little at heart we ask for only in a half-hearted way, if even we ask it at all; so what wdesire with our whole soul we ask for with words offire, and plead for it before God with an eloquencethat is very real.

H.-VOCAL PRAYERAND MENTAL PRAYER.Leaving aside whatever belongs not to ourpresent subject, we will confine ourselves to saying

that prayer is divided into vocal and mental.Vocal prayer is that which is made by using

words or signs, or, perhaps, more exactly byusing some approved form of words, which weread or recite; such as, the divine office, the beads,the Angelus, grace before and after meals, &c.Mental prayer is that which is made without em-ploying either words or formulas of any kind.

A large share is given to the former in our dailyexercises. The liturgical prayers are imposed bythe laws of the Church; by our rules also we areenjoined certain vocal prayers; and others, like thebeads, are in such constant use amongst the faithfulgenerally, that a good relrgrous would not wish toomit them. Vocal prayer is not to be despised,for, if well made, it pays to God the homage of ourbody as well as that of our soul. A heart full of


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6 ON PRAYER IN GENERALdevotion pours itself out quite naturally in wordsand signs which express externally its interiorsentiments; on the other hand. when there is needto excite such sentiments, these pious formulas fixthe attention of the mind, and call forth the devo-tion of the heart. "It is for this reason," says St.Thornas.! "we must, in private prayer, make useof these words and signs as far as they are usefulto arouse the mind interiorly; but if they shouldend by distracting it or causing it any hindrance,we must cease to make use of them, and this is thecase especially of those whose mind is sufficientlyprepared for devotion without these external ex-pressions.' ,

This last observation of St. Thomas shows towhat extent each one ought to devote himself tovocal prayer, outside prayers of obligation or thoseprescribed by the rules. According to Schram.f forthose who are not called to a more elevated prayer,vocal prayer well made may well suffice to enablethem to lead a Christian and even a perfect life,especially if they are urged to this by a specialmovement from God-an impulse which may berecognised by its effects. Nay more, St.Bonaventure recommends vocal prayers to themore devout, that they may have the good customof ruminating them when their devotion flags.St. Teresa knew several who from vocal prayerwere raised by God to a very sublime degree ofcontemplation." "I know," says she, "a person

I 2. 2. q. 83. a. 12 Schram. Theol. Mysf ~ J6.


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OF VOCAL ~RAYER 7who never being able to pray otherwise thanvocally, was yet in possession of all the otherdegrees of prayer. She came to me oneday much affiicted at not being able to makemental prayer nor to apply herself to contemplation,finding herself reduced to saying only some vocalprayers. I asked her what they were, and I foundthat while. saying continually the Pater, she usedto enter into so high a contemplation that it wasevident Our Lord raised her even to divine union;and her actions indeed showed it, for she lived aholy life. So I praised Our Lord and envied sucha vocal prayer." 1 That does not prevent the saintfrom strongly urging mental prayer upon herdaughters, and even telling them that they shouldmake every effort to arrive at mystical contempla-tion if it is God's will.2 Religious will generallyderive more profit from practising mental prayer, allthe more because a considerable part of their timeis already devoted to the exercise of vocal prayer incommon. At all events, it is better to recite fewervocal prayers, and to say them with recollectionand devotion, than to try to get through a greatnumber hastily; neither should we take upon us somany as to end by being disgusted. And "ifduring vocal prayer," says St. Francis of Sales.s" you feel your heart drawn and invited to interioror mental prayer, refuse not to follow this attrac-tion, but allow your thoughts to flow freely in that

Way of Perfection, xxxi Ibid, xviii.I De'fJOul Life, znd part, c. I. n. 8,


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8 ON PRAYER IN GENERALdirection, and be not troubled at not havingfinished the vocal prayers which you had intendedto say; for the mental prayer which you will makein their stead will be more agreeable to God andmore useful to your soul." Vocal prayers of obli-gation, however, are always to be said.

Ill.-ATTENTION IN VOCAL PRAYERS.We must not confine ourselves to reciting the

words with our lips; it is necessary that we shouldraise to God our mind by attention, our heart bydevotion, and our will by submission. "If anyone," says St. Thomas, "is voluntarily dis-tracted it is a sin, and that hinders the fruit of theprayer." 1 We must herein be all the more watch-ful over ourselves, because habit easily begetsroutine. It is not, however, of obligation, in factit is morally impossible, that the attention of themind be always actual. "It is sufficient," saysM. Ribet,2 "that the will perseveres, and the willto pray is suspended only by a distraction freelyconsented to."

Nay, more, according to St. Thomas.e in orderthat 'Vocal prayer be meritorious and obtain itseffect, it is not necessary that the attention remainsactual to the end; it suffices to have begun with anattention which is not afterwards retracted by anyvoluntary distraction. But prayer so made does

S. Th., 2, 2. q. 83. a. 13, ad 3. M. Ribet, Ascii. ehret . c. xxv. 7. S. Th . 2, 2. q. 83. a. 11


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OF VOCAL PRAYER 9not nourish the soul with the sap of devotion.Some bring forward as an objection to this thewords of St. Gregory 1: "God listens not to himwho while praying listens not to himself." St.Thomas teaches that this holds good only whenprayer is begun and continued without attention.According to this consoling doctrine, when webegin weIl, and afterwards in spite of us our mindwanders, the prayer, which we continue to say withthis involuntary distraction, will not be entirelydevoid of merit and effect. But then it must beadmitted that if the soul could only keep herselfmore attentive the merit and fruit would be greater.

It is, therefore, of great importance to commencevocal prayer well, and to preserve always an actualattention. For this reason it is well to put oneselfat first in the presence of God, in order to withdrawall the powers of the soul from exterior things, torecoIlect them within oneself, and to fix them uponGod. It is also very useful to renew one's atten-tion at certain fixed times. Further on 2 we wiIlpoint out different ways of recollecting oneself.We might, if we liked, keep our eyes fixed uponthe holy tabernacle, or look at a crucifix or somepious picture, represent to ourselves God inHeaven, or Our Lord in the Crib, at Nazareth,during the Passion, upon the cross, &c., and speakto Him as if we ~aw Him.

St. Teresa.e treating of 'Vocal prayer (or rather 0 S. Greg., I. 22. ,l/onz!., c. 13.2 Cf. 2nd part, c. ii. ii., p. 106.ISt. Teresa. WaJ', xxix, and xxx.


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10 O~ PRAYER I~ GENERALvocal prayer meditated), and starting from theprinciple that God dwells in the just soul as in amagnificent palace and a little paradise, highlypraises what she calls the prayer of active recollec-tion.I We close our bodily eyes; and the soul,collecting together all her powers, enters into her-self with God. She ceases not to look upon Himinteriorly while the lips are reciting some piousprayer, and, knowing for certain that He is quitenear, and that she has no need to cry out aloud,she speaks to Him lovingly and noiselessly as toher Father, her Brother, her Spouse, her Lord.Since God is ever within us the saint exhorts herdaughters not to leave such an august companionalone; she wishes them to look at Him while speak-ing to Him; it is the means to excite attention, toinflame devotion, and to prepare the soul for ahigher kind of prayer. She declares that she her-self never knew what it was to pray with satisfac-tion until the day that God taught her to act inthis way. This is a method which depends on ourwill, and though we had to spend six months or awhole year in acquiring it neither our time nor ourtrouble would be lost.

St. Ignatius 2 teaches a manner of prayingvocally which "consists in saying some prayervery slowly, leaving the space of a full breath

I See St. Teresa's 01lm Words: or Instructions on the Prayerof Recollection, a short treatise (pp. 39), by the Rt, Rev. JamesChadwick, Bisbop of Hexham and Newcastle, published byMessrs, Burns & Oates.-Trans.

S. Ing., Spiro Ex., Jrd. manner of prayer.


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OF VOCAL PRAYER Ifbetween each word. Let us apply this method asfollows to the prayer :-Soul of Christ, sanctify me.1. Recollect yourself and ask yourself: What isit Iam going to do?

2.-Beg the grace to derive much fruit from thisexercise.

3. Commence the prayer: Soul--of Christ-sanctify me. - Body-of Christ-save me.-Blood--of Christ-inebriate me: and so on.

During this time we think on the sense of theword we have just pronounced, or on the dignity ofHim to whom we prav. on our own baseness, ourmiseries, or our needs.

This method is suitable for everyone, for anytime in the day.:and may be practised during almostevery kind of manual work. It is very useful forsuch as may have contracted a bad habit of recitingtheir vocal prayers too quickly; but it is particularlyrecommended to religious."

It is easy to understand that this method con-tributes much to excite attention and devotion;it is already as it were a timid attempt at medita-tion.


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CHAPTER IIMENTAL PRAYER-ITS OBJECT

I.-OF MENTALPRAYERN GENERAL.MENTALprayer in general is an interior and silentprayer, by which the soul raises itself to Godwithout the aid of words or formulas, in order todischarge its duty towards Him and to becomebetter.

There is ordinary mental prayer and mysticalmental prayer; in other terms, active prayer andpassive prayer.

Prayer, like every other meritorious act, requiresGod's grace and man's co-operation; but some-times the soul's effort is more manifest, sometimesthe divine action.

In active prayer the soul's effort predominates,God's action is less evident; the supernatural,though very real, remains latent.

In passive prayer God's action is stronger andgoes so far as to reduce the soul to a certain passivestate, more or less accentuated according to thedegree of mystical union; and when this is wellmarked, the supernatural is plainiy perceptible-almost palpable. This passive condition, however,interferes with only certain operations of the mindand of the senses; the soul, under God's action.remains free and capable of meriting even in the

Iii


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MENTAL PRAYER-ITS OBJECT 13state of ecstasy, and it is altogether occupied incontemplating and loving God, sometimes with amarvellous intensity.

Further on, we will speak of these mystical kindsof prayer; for the present, we shall confine ourselvesto the ordinary kinds of mental prayer, after havingmade some general considerations applicable toboth. H.-OF ORDINARYMENTAL PRAYER.

Active prayer is a kind of mental prayer in whicha person raises his mind to God by considerationsor by a simple look, and his will by pious affec-tions, petitions, and resolutions.

God gives His interior and hidden grace, andthe soul endeavours to turn towards Him. Accord-ing to the saying of St. Teresa, the soul in thisstage is like a gardener, who, with much labour,draws the water up from the depths of the well towater his plants and flowers.

These efforts of the soul consist of two opera-tions; one belongs to the thinking facuIty whichapplies the imagination, the memory, the under-standing to consider some truth or mystery, to turnit over and over, to convince itself of it and topenetrate it. This is what is called the considera-tion or the meditation. Later, it will concentratethe mi.nd's attention upon God without the round-about ways and turmoil of reasonings, and thiswill be the simple look of contemplation. Theother operation is dependent on the will. and makesus love, desire, ask the good proposed by the mind,


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14 ON PRAYER IN GENERALand make resolutions to arrive at it; this is prayer-mental prayer properly so called.The considerations are not a mere speculativestudy; they are not made in order to learn or toknow, but to inflame the heart, and set the will inmotion. The mind's eye is fixed upon sometruth in order to believe it, upon some virtue inorder to love and seek it, upon some duty to fulfilit, upon moral evil to detest and fly from it, uponsome danger to avoid it. In a word, meditationought to lead to love and to action.

In the early stages of the spiritual life,con-siderations occupy a large place, because we haveneed to strengthen our faith; later on, in proportionas the practice of mental prayer and of virtue haspenetrated the soul with profound convictions, con-siderations progressively diminish, and end bygiving place to a simple thought, to a simpleattentive look. On the other hand, affections, atfirst rare and wordy, go on increasing; they gainall the ground that considerations lose; they, too, areafter a time simplified, becoming shorter and morenumerous, and the soul ends by attaching itself toa fewaffections only, which suffice for its needs andits attractions.

II I.-OF THE END OF MENTAL PRAYER.All mental prayer, active or passive, whatever beits object, form or method, has for its end toglorify God, and in order to this, as we havealready seen.I it may perform the four Iunctions of. c. i. rst, p. 2.


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MENIAL FRAYER-ITS OBJECT 15prayer, or some of the four, or only one, accordingto the attraction or need of the soul. But, inaddition to this, and we beg our readers to payspecial attention to this remark, it has always forits end to make us better.

We make mental prayer in order to be convertedfrom evil to good, from good to better, from betterto perfection, as we have promised. This constantantiprogressive conversion, or this tending to per-fection, as it is now called, is the chief point of ourrules, the object towards which should tend all ourobservances. All our spiritual exercises, withoutexception, are directed to this end, and have noother ; but mental prayer, by its very nature andits divers acts, is pre-eminently the source of thistransformation.

Those who are as yet only at the beginning of thespiritual life should propose to themselves as theresult of their mental prayer, the extirpation ofsome sin or some defect, above all of their pre-dominant vice; the victory over some temptation,the correction of some bad inclination, the governing of such and such a passion. When one evil iscorrected they should turn their prayer againstanother for as long as may be necessary in order totriumph over it; and thus mental prayer wellpractised will purify their souls.

Those who are making spiritual progress should,without abandoning altogether this struggle againstevil, employ their prayer chiefly in cultivating thevirtues, especially the fundamental virtues, orthose of which they have most need; above all,


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.6 ON PRAYER IN GENERALthe spirit of faith. humility, self-renunciation,obedience. recollection and the life of praver, inorder to arrive at perfect love.

Those who are already united to God in spirit,heart, and will, should employ their prayer instrengthening this union. They should love inorder to develop holy charity; their prayer shouldconsist chiefly of love, confidence, conformity andabandonment to the divine will, particularlyamidst the crosses sent by Providence.

It is thus that our prayer will attain its end. Itsprincipal object is not to instruct us, pious readingwould suffice for that; it is rather to inflame theheart, that it may discharge better its duty towardsGod, and especially to conform our will to that ofGod, so that prayer may detach us from everythingelse, attach us to Him alone, and SO transform ourhabits and our life.

During prayer, pious considerations replace ourhuman thoughts with thoughts more divine; theentering into ourselves puts before us a mirror inwhich we contemplate our defects; affections andpetitions unite us to God and draw down the gracewhich clothes us with strength from on High. Weleave off this communing with God in a closer rela-tion with Him. These are already so many fruitsripe and gathered for Heaven. But all this tendsfurther to good resolutions, which as yet are onlyflowers, and should become fruits.

After prayer has ended. all is not yet done. Itis not a drawer. from which we take out during halfan hour convictions and affections. and then shut it


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MENTAL PRAYER-ITS OBJEC"I 17up for the rest of the day. Lights have beenreceived, to which we should henceforth strive toconform our thoughts and conduct; we retire fromprayer with a perfume of devotion which we mustnot allow to evaporate; we have made good reso-lutions and asked the help of God's grace to keepthem; it now remains to put them in practice. Ina word, mental prayer prepares us for action; a lifeof prayer calls for a life eminent in all virtues.Otherwise, mental prayer has not produced all itsfruit; it has brought forth flowers in abundance;let us take care that these flowers, rich in promise,be not blasted by the icy breath of dissipation,routine, and tepidity.


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CHAPTER IIIADVANTAGES AND NECESSITY OF

MENTAL PRAYER

As we shall point out later on the happy effectsof affective prayer and of contemplation, we shallhere more especially keep in view those of medita-tion.

The tending to perfection, which sums up all ourobligations, meets with obstacles in us, both on thepart of the understanding and on the part of thewill.

I.-ON THE PART OF THE UNDERSTANDING.On the part of the understanding there is 1

ignorance of the supernatural life. The remedy isthe word of God which we can find in instructionsand in pious reading. To listen attentively to theword of God or to read it carefully is already abeginning of meditation.

There is 2want of reflection, levity, routine, in-advertence to the truths of faith, that milder form offorgetfulness which makes such havoc even amongstus religious; a baneful pest, which dries up devotionand destroys the energy of the soul, and which St.Benedict exhorts us absolutely to avoid'! This is

Reg. S. Ben. c. vii., 1St degree of humility.18


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ADVANTAGES OF MENTAL PRAYER 19why the earth is laid desolate, and even, alas r thecloister, the very home of sanctity; because no onethinks sufficiently in his heart. Hence it comes topass that even amongst good souls, who live bygrace, there are so many weak, so many slumber-ing. When we forget God and the things of God,we have still the eye of faith, but it is half closedby spiritual drowsiness. The end to be aimed at,the rocks to be avoided, the virtues to be practised,-everything is clouded over, nothing distinctly out-lined. While faith sleeps, fear, hope, and love,which should carry us to God, slacken their course,and wander about aimlessly. Hope is withoutdesire, charity without fervour; the other virtueslose their activity; torpor reigns everywhere; thesleep which deadens faith gains upon our wholesupernatural life, and the enemy profits of it to sowcockle in the field of our soul. We sleep and wedream; and while our eyes are closed towards God,our imagination is taken up with a thousand foolishfancies as in a dream, our memory is filled witha thousand frivolous recollections, our intellectexhausts itself in useless thoughts and in the pre-occupations of our work and office. We have beensleeping long enough and too long; " it is time forus to awake at last," to ,. open our eyes to thedeifying light, to act in a manner which may profitus for eternity," and" by our progress in faith andin a good life, to dilate our hearts and to run in theway of the precepts and counsels." 1

But what, then, can arouse us from this wretched Reg. S. Ben., prolog. passim.


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20 ON PRAYER IN GENERALsluggishness, if not the practice of mental prayer?Little by little, mental prayer well made will renderour faith more lively, will strengthen our convic-tions, will penetrate us deeply with the things ofGod, will keep the supernatural always present toour mind. And then there will be no more forget-fulness, no more sleep. It will then be easy for usto live by faith, to fear, to hope, to love and to actas we ought, because the eye of our faith will bealways open.

There is 3 ignorance of ourselves. Self-loveblinds us; humiliated by our many miseries anddiscouraged by the difficulty of remedying them,we prefer to shut our eyes. Hence, no longer seeingthe faults we have to correct, and the enemies wehave to combat, we either cease to fight, or merelybeat the air. So also, if we hardly know the virtueswe want, the weak points we should strengthen,our spiritual life will drift away aimlessly at themercy of every passing impulse,

The remedy for this pest is the examination ofconscience, especially the self-examination which ismade during mental prayer. For, after showing usthe ideal we should follow, mental prayer invites usto consider the reforms we have to make. Thusit is the torch which illumines our spiritual work,it is especially the school of humility. He whoneglects mental prayer " has no horror of himself,because he feels not his miseries" 1; on the otherhand, mental prayer enables us to put our fingerupon the multitude of our faults, defects, and irn-

S. Bern., De Consid.. L i. c. 2.


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ADVANTAGES OF MENTAL PRAYER 21perfections, to see clearly how poor we are invirtues and merits. what pitiful creatures we are,when contrasted with the saints who are the gloryof the Church and of the Cistercian Order, and aboveall to realise our nothingness and wretchednessbefore Him who is greatness and sanctity itself.Thus mental prayer becomes the grave of pride.

H.-ON THE PART OF THE WILL.1.-The first obstacle to our progress is to be

found in our affections; it is a certain weariness ofGod which makes us cold and languid in His ser-vice, while at the same time we are in a fever ofanxiety for all which is not God. Sin has drawnus aside from our end and turned us towards thecreature. The remedy is mental prayer, whichdetaches us from obstacles, and unites us to whathelps us. It detaches us from sin, from perishablegoods, from the world, above all, from ourselves;and it unites us to the one and only Good.

First, it detaches us from sin. "This it is,"says Fr. Crasset, "which leads us down in spiritto hell, to behold our place there; which brings usto the grave-yard, to behold there our abode; toheaven, to behold there our throne; to the valley ofJosaphat, there to behold our judge; to Bethlehem,there to see our Saviour; to Thabor, there tobehold our love; to Calvary, there to contemplateour model."

It detaches us from perishable goods. such asriches, honours, bodily comfort, of all which things


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z : z ON PRAYER IN Gl!NERALit is so easy to make an ill use. Itshows us thevanity of all that cannot satisfy a heart hungeringafter God, the inconstancy and frailty of all thatpasses away, the anxieties and dangers these falsegoods bring with them, and their utter worthless-ness in comparison with what lasts for ever. Andif it renders these things so contemptible in oureyes, it detaches us still more from them by teach-ing us to love God. "How empty appears theearth to him who contemplates heaven!" Howits joys and honours lose all their charm once thesoul has tasted God!

It detaches us from the world. It teaches us tomake no account of the world's promises or threats,of its esteem or its contempt; for the world canneither make us happy nor virtuous; we are nobetter because it extols us to the clouds, nor any.worse when it tramples us under foot. We areworth only just what we are worth in God's eyes.Mental prayer makes us dread the corruption of theworld, the danger of its praises, the perfidiousnessof its caresses, far more than its impotent fury. Itmakes us understand that God alone is to be con-sidered; that no other's anger is to be feared, noother's esteem to be desired, that there is no otherfriendship on which the heart can securely rest.

Above all, it detaches us from ourselves. Thegrave of pride, as we have called it, it is also that ofsensuality. "It substitutes the spirit for the flesh,the soul's delights for bodily pleasures. If there isany fact evident in the history of Christian andreligious life, it is that the love of mortification


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ADVANTAGES OF MENTAL PRAYER 13keeps pace in a soul with the love of mental prayer.This exercise also enriches with treasures of patiencethose who seriously give themselves to it. Theybear pains and afflictions, whencesoever they maycome, without a murmur, and even with joy." 1

Finally, mental prayer unites us to God. De-tached from all things, the soul is no longer heldback by anything; it is so thoroughly emptied thatGod hastens to fill it with Himself, there to estab-lish His Kingdom. What treasures, what adeliverance, what a .happiness a soul enjoys, in pro-portion as the habit of mental prayer withdraws herfrom beneath the sway of her passions and subjectsher to her good Master, first by fear, afterwards byhope, and lastly by love! A day comes when theheart is taken captive; then it is a mutual friend-ship, the sweetest intimacy. The soul knows Godand His infinite charms, and this view enchantsand inflames her; everywhere, in nature and ingrace, in Our Lord's life, and in her own, she seesa thousand touching proofs of the mercies and ofthe love of Him who ravishes her heart. Notwith-standing her nothingness and her faults, she daresto raise towards a God so high and so holy the eyesof her heart and to ask for a return of affection, sheloves God and is beloved by Him. God does notdisdain to lower Himself even to her, and oftenshe is astonished at the tenderness which her Godmanifests towards her. Oh, how consoling andstrengthening are these precious but all-too-shortmoments! How superabundantly they compen-

Fr. Chaignon, Mid. rel.; rst. "01., p. 10.


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24 ON PRAYER IN GENERALsate for all past sufferings, and give courage to facenew trials! Because the soul loves and wishes tobe loved, she cannot endure that anything in hershould offend the most pure eyes of her Well-Beloved, and so love watches with a jealous eyeover the purity of the heart. What sacrificeswould she not make to preserve or to bring backthe visits of Him who is her all? The more welove the more we forget ourselves, and the more weleave ourselves in order to go to God. We seekGod alone, and, therefore, we would think only ofGod, speak only of God, live all the day long onlywith God, spend ourselves and suffer for Him, and,after having employed all our energies in servingHim, still think we had done nothing. Now,mental prayer is the source whence springs thisholy love: "My heart grew hot within me; and inmy meditation a fire shall flame out." 1

Louis of Blois thus describes this transformationof the soul by mental prayer :-" The soul, puttingoff everything human, and putting on what isdivine, is, as it were, transformed and changed intoGod, as iron placed in the furnace receives the formof fire and is changed into fire. So thesoul was cold before, but now it has become all in-flamed; it was in darkness before, but now itshines; it was hard before, but now it has becomesoft. Its entire being takes on a celestial aspect,because its essence is all penetrated by the divineessence." Now that the soul has found God it

Ps. xxxviii., Cor meum concaluit intra me et in meJitationemeAexardescet ignis.


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ADVANTAGES OF MENTAL PRAYER %5willingly renounces creatures. She possesses infact. light, strength, peace, joy, liberty j for infinding God, she has found all good.2. The second obstacle which the will offers toour progress regards our resolutions; it is sluggish-ness, weakness, cowardice, inconstancy. The soleremedy for this evil is God's grace, without whichwe can do nothing, and with which we can do allthings. Now, nowhere is it asked for so well as inmental prayer, when meditation has made us feelthe need of it, and the heart is inflamed with holyaffections j we have then the eloquence of a poorman who is sensible of his misery, and prayer, asa loud cry, bursts forth from the depths of the soul.Then it is that we gain more strength to do violenceto God's mercy, who wants to be implored, whowishes to be constrained, who wills to be overcomeby a kind of importunity on our part)

ilL-WHAT THE SAINTS HAVE THOUGHT OFMENTAL PRAYER.

They have devoted to it long hours day andnight, and no argument is equal to that. Manyamongst them have praised it very highly in theirwritings.

St. Bonaventure, quoted or analysed by St. Peterof Alcantara,2 makes the following poetic eulogyof it :-" If you would suffer with patience theadversities and miseries of this life, be a man of

I s. Greg., in Ps. prenit., 6. St. Peter of Ale. Treatise 0" Pmye" rst part, c. i.


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z6 ON PRAYER IN GENERALprayer. If you would obtain courage and strengthto conquer the temptations of the enemy, be a manof prayer. If you would mortify your own willwith all its inclinations and appetites, be a man ofprayer. If you would know the wiles of Satan andunmask his deceits, be a man of prayer. If youwould live in joy and walk pleasantly in the waysof penance, be a man of prayer. If you wouldbanish from your soul the troublesome flies of vainthoughts and cares, be a man of prayer. If youwould nourish your soul with the very sap ofdevotion, and keep it always full of good thoughtsand good desires, be a man of prayer. If youwould strengthen and keep up your courage in theways of God, be a man of prayer. In fine, if youwould uproot all vices from your soul and plarit allvirtues in their place, be a man of prayer. It is inprayer that we receive the unction and grace of theHoly Ghost, who teaches all things. I say more:if you would raise yourself to the heights of con-templation and enjoy the sweet embraces of theSpouse, practise mental prayer. It is the wayby which the soul is raised to the contemplationand enjoyment of heavenly things. It

.. In mental prayer, It adds St. Peter of Alcan-tara, 1" the soul is purified from its sins, nourishedwith charity, confirmed in faith, and strengthenedin hope; the mind expands, the affections dilate,the heart is purified, truth becomes evident;temptation is conquered, sadness dispelled; thesenses are renovated: the drooping powers revive;

I St. Peter of Ale. Trt!lzlise on Prayer, 1St part, c. i.


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ADVANTAGES 0F MENTAL PRAYER %7tepidity ceases; the rust of vices disappears. Out ofmental prayer issue forth, like living sparks, thosedesires of heaven which the soul conceives wheninflamed with the fire of divine love. Sublime isthe excellence of mental prayer, great are itsprivileges; to mental prayer heaven is opened; tomental prayer heavenly secrets are manifested andthe ear of God is ever attentive."St. Teresa, who may be called the doctor ofmental prayer, never ceases to urge her daughtersto practise it and would have wished to lead themup to its heights. It is mental prayer that savedher. "There, nothing is to be feared, andeverything that can be desired is to be found. Pro-gress is slow, be it so. But, at allevents, we learn by degrees to know the roadto heaven. It is not in vain that wehave chosen God for our friend. For, in myopinion, prayer is only a friendly intercourse inwhich the soul converses alone with Him by whomshe knows that she is loved. Oh, myMaster, what an excellent friend Thou art in herregard! I have seen it clearly in my own case, andI know not why every one would not aspire to drawnear to Thee by a friendship so intimate. Thosewho give up mental prayer I really pity, they serveGod at their own cost. It is not so with those whopractise mental prayer. This adorable master paysall their expenses. In exchange for a little troubleHe gives them consolations which enable them tobear all crosses. God grants such sublimegraces, as He has given me,only to mental prayer.


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2& ON PRAYER IN GENERALIf we close against Him this door, in vain wouldHe seek to enter the soul to take his delight thereand to flood her with joy, hecause He finds no wayopen." 1 The demon seeks by every means to turnus away from prayer; " he well knows, the traitor,that a soul that perseveres in prayer is lost to himfor ever; you may believe me, she willarrive at the harbour of salvation." 2 The saintrelates that, during long years, "she was lessabsorbed by useful and holy reflexions than by thelonging to hear the clock announcing the end ofprayer-time"; she would have preferred theseverest penance to the torment of having torecollect herself; " on entering the place of prayer,she was seized with a mortal sadness"; but" whenshe had conquered herself, she tasted more peaceand delight than on certain other days when herinclination had led her to prayer." 3 She relatesalso how the demon tried to persuade her that herimperfections rendered her unworthy of giving somuch time to prayer, and that she ought, like theothers, to be satisfied with the time allotted to thatexercise by the rule. "Where were my wits?What folly to fly the light, to stumble at everystep in the dark! What a proud humility thedemon knew how to suggest in order to induce meto abandon mental prayer, that pillar, that staff,"of which I had so great a need! "In my opinion.it is the greatest danger I incurred in my wholelife." 4 Let those, then, who have begun to walk

Life. viii. Ibid., xi..

J Ibid., viii. Ibid.. xix.


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ADVANTAGES OF MENTAL PRAYER 29in this way "continue to advance always, nomatter what obstacle presents itself, no matter whatdifficulty crops up, or what tribulation they mustendure, however much they may be blamed andreviled, whatever faintheartedness they may feel onthe road, whatever uncertainty they may experienceas to their arriving at the goal, however apparent itmay be in their case that they can never support somany labours; in fine, though they should die inconsequence, though the whole world and all it con-tains were to perish with them, let them never stopadvancing on this path." 1

"Since mental prayer," says St. Francis ofSales," 2 " brings our intellect to the light of God,and keeps our will exposed to the flames of divinelove, there is nothing which can better dispel thedarkness with which ignorance and error haveobscured our intelligence, nor better purify ourhearts from all our depraved affections. It is thewater of benediction which should serve to washaway the iniquities of our souls, to refresh our heartsconsumed by the thirst of our cupidity, and tonourish the first seeds which virtue has thereplanted, and which are good desires."

St. Philip Neri, with his uncompromisingenergy, says that "a religious without mentalprayer is an animal without reason"; that is, thathe ceases to live by faith, to walk by the spirit, inorder to become the slave of his senses.

According to St. Liguori, a" as long as a sou)I Way, xxii Devout Lift, 2nd part, c. i. . TnM Spouse, xv. I.


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30 ON Pt{AY~R IN GENERALgives herself to mental prayer you will behold hera model of modesty, of humility, of devotion, andof mortification; let her abandon mental prayer,and soon the modesty of her looks disappears, herpride will burst forth at the least word whichoffends. She will scarcely think anylonger of mortifying herself, on the contrary, youwill behold her in love with vanities, amusements,and earthly pleasures. Why? The water of graceflows into her no longer, she wants life; shehas abandoned mental prayer, the garden is parchedup, and the evil grows daily worse"! "Wesee some," adds the holy doctor, "who recite therosary, the office of the Blessed Virgin, and givethemselves to other exterior practices of piety, andnevertheless continue to live in sin; but when anyone constantly practises mental prayer it is impos-sible for him to continue to live in sin." He alsogoes so far as to declare mental prayer to be" morally necessary." It is especially indispensablefor those who are tending to perfection, all the saintshave arrived there by this way; it is the shortestroad to it, according to St. Ignatius of Loyola.

This moral necessity, however, is incumbent onlyon souls that are not incapable of making mentalprayer. Should there be found minds for whom thiswas really impossible, God would supply its place bypious reading and vocal prayer well made, and thiswould suffice to lead them even to perfection. Butwe must be very careful not to take difficulty for animpossibility, nor our own negligence for an ex-cusing cause. When we know how to reflect upon


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ADVANTAGES OF MENTAL PRAYER 31our work, our occupation, on a thousand temporalaffairs, can it be possible that it is only on thethings of heaven and our eternal interests that wecannot think? There is no need of fine phrases norof lofty conceptions. It suffices to reflect on thethings of God in oneself and for oneself alone assimply as one pleases. Books to aid us are notwanting, and it is a science which is acquired bystudy and practice. It may seem troublesome atfirst, but experience will make it easy.

We beg, therefore, our brethren in religion tomake well the meditations prescribed by the rule,but not to be satisfied with that. As the membersof a community have not alI the same tastes nor thesame aptitude, our constitutions impose only aminimum accessible to everyone, and this is themeasure indicated by St. Liguori: "The confessorat first should not prescribe more than half anhour, afterwards he can more or less increase thetime according to the soul's spiritual progress." 1Our constitutions expect that" when the Work ofGod,2 whicb takes precedence of everything, isended, the monks, during the hours not assignedto manual labour, should occupy themselves inprayer or spiritual reading." They advise us,with our Holy Father St. Benedict, "to apply our-selves frequently to prayer," and they permit everyone, "outside the time of the common exercises, togive himself to prayer, if drawn to it by the inspira-tion of divine grace." 3

, St. Lig., Praxis, 123 So the Divine Office is called by St. Benedict.-T,.aM.I Cons. O. C. R., 83. Rd., 92.


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32 ON PRAYER IN GENERALDo you wish to know why our houses are no

longer peopled with saints as they were in theheroic ages ? We watch, we chant, we fast, wework pretty much as our Fathers did j but we arenot to the same extent as they were men of prayer jthey trampled the world under foot because their"conversation was in heaven." 1

The holy Abbot St. Antony spent the whole nightin prayer, and complained that the day came toosoon to interrupt his converse with God. St. Roseof Lima spent twelve hours in prayer daily. St.Francis Borgia used to spend eight hours inprayer, and to beg "as a favour yet anothermoment." St. Philip Neri passed whole nights inprayer. The Rev. Fr. Torres imposed on thereligious whom he directed an hour's mental prayerin the morning, a second hour during the day, andhalf an hour in the evening, unless they were other-wise hindered. After quoting these examples, St.Liguori adds: "If this seems to you too much, Iadvise you to make at least one hour of mentalprayer besides that made in common." 2 It istrue we have many other pious exercises, but we arecontemplatives by profession; "let us then allowno one to surpass us in the love of God since wemore than others are obliged to love Him." 3 Theworld, too, needs our prayers so badly!

Let us conclude with a counsel of St. Peter ofAlcantara: .. The servant of God should reserve

I Phil. iii. 20. St. Lig., Th~ True Spouse, xv. 2.Id. Serm, to Ordinandi.


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ADVANTAGES OF MENTAL PRAYER 33to himself certain moments, when, laying aside alloccupations, even holy ones (the necessary permis-sion being pre-supposed), he will devote himselfexclusively to spiritual exercises, and give to hissoul a more abundant spiritual nourishment whichmay repair the daily losses, and procure for himnew strength to advance still more. And if this betrue of ordinary days, how much more so of greatfeasts and of times of tribulation and trial? It isalso advisable to do this after long journeys andcertain affairs which distract and dissipate theheart; this is the true means to regain recollectionof spirit." 1 St. Peter of Alcant., Prayer and Medit., and p., v., 5th counsel.


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CHAPTER IVTHE ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS IN

MENTAL PRAYER

ALTHOljGH the non-mystical kinds of mentalprayer are accessible to all, with perhaps somevery rare exceptions, yet account must first of allbe taken of the will of God, who distributes Hisgifts as He pleases. Still there are divers elementsof success that depend on our own will. Some ofthese regard the dispositions of our soul, others ourmonastic observances, others in fine mental prayeritself.

I.-DISPOSITIONSOFTHESOUL.Let us put in the first place the degree of purity

to which the soul has attained. There will always bea rather strict proportion between holiness of lifeand the degree of mental prayer one has arrived at.These two things run parallel, and give each othermutual support; they progress together or they fallaway together. Meditation, for instance, produceslittle by little purity of heart, and this latter pre-disposes the soul to contemplation.

It is, therefore. of supreme importance to acquirethe fourfold purity of the conscience, of the heart,of the intellect, and of the will.

31


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SUCCESS IN MENi"AL PRAYER 351. Purity of conscience, which is a state of aver-

sion for venial sin. Some slight faults still escapethe soul, but she is not satisfied to live in the habitof these faults, and to permit them to take root.She is watchful over herself, combats sin, detachesherself from it, conceives a profound horror of it,and, "loving cleanness of heart, she has the king-for her friend." 1 On the other hand, if she isentangled in any affection for sin, she has no longerthe same relish for God, and God has no longerthe same liking for her; all these multiplied, ill-combated faults, like a thick and icy cloud, dim theeye of faith, cool holy affections, benumb the willand paralyse its good resolutions. After our fallswe must hasten to confess them with humility, andto blot them out by a prompt repentance.

Nevertheless, "even in and after our sorrow forour sins," says St. Francis of Sales, "we shouldkeep our peace of mind. Put aside thenall that gloomy, restless, peevish, and thereforeproud depression." In consequence of a repent-ance full of trust in God, our very weaknesses, byhumbling us, become a part of our remedy; and,according to the same saint, to rise constantlywithout ever being discouraged, without losinganything of our firm resolution to belong wholly toGod, is the effect of heroic virtue. Such a soulpleases Our Lord very much and draws Him to herby her humility.2. Purity of heart. Our heart is pure when welove only God, or according to liod. We must,

I Prov. xxii. II.


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36 ON PRAYER IN GENERALtherefore, banish thence every culpable affection,sever every tie of which the Divine Master is not thebeginning and the end, and which is not regulatedaccording to His will. As long as we are attachedto anything created, we have no longer the same free-dom to raise ourselves to God j the affections of theheart engross the thoughts and distract the mind jand then these thoughts and affections draw us faraway from Our Lord towards the object of our love.If, on the contrary, the heart belongs to God alone,our thoughts and affections move at ease in prayer,as a fish does in water. The heart carries the soul toGod, and then everything else becomes to it insipid jand, whilst it is making and multiplying acts of love,it holds the mind captive and keeps it steadily fixedupon God, like to a mother who, passionately lovingher child, finds no difficulty in thinking of him, ingazing upon him forwhole days together j in fact,to look upon him and to love him is her very life jand to sacrifice herself for him is her happiness.

3. Purity of mind. This is the control weexercise over the working of our imagination, ourmemory, and our thoughts, in order to banishwhatever sullies or endangers the soul, and evenwhat merely dissipates or unduly engrosses it.

First, then, there are bad or dangerous thoughts,imaginations and memories; all, for instance, thatis contrary to the holy virtue, to charity, tohumility, &c.; all that recalls the real or imaginedsuccess, injuries, or praise we met with in the past;all that nourishes resentment. bitterness, or a tootender affection; whatever could attract and seduce


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SUCCESS IN MENTAL PRAYER 37us, such as beauty and pleasure; in a word, what-ever would stain the purity or trouble the peace ofthe soul.

There are also useless thoughts which distract themind; idle at first, they soon become dangerous andculpable.

Finally, there are thoughts good in themselves,but which come at a wrong time, or absorb toomuch of our attention; they regard, for instance,our work, our office, our studies; but it is not nowthe time to attend to them; or, if it be, insteadof admitting them only as far as duty requires,we allow them to invade, pre-occupy, or even whollyabsorb us. Or they may be thoughts connectedwith virtue, but in such a way as to causeagitation and trouble, as happens in the case ofscruples.

If we wish to become men of prayer we mustregulate and discipline the mind; for whateversullies, troubles, or distracts it can only be harmfulto union with God. All this is an obstacle torecollection and attention, stifles devotion, para-lyses good resolutions, and causes a mutual cold-ness between God and the soul. God willinglycommunicates Himself to hearts that are pure, tominds that keep silence in order to listen to Him;He loves not to raise His voice in the midst oftumult; and an unmortified soul is exposed to theturmoil and noise of a thousand various thoughts.To abandon oneself habitually to every caprice ofone's mind, and to aspire at the same time tobecome a man of prayer, is to desire the impos-


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38 ON PRAYER IN GENERALsible; you might just as reasonably select as yourplace of prayer the most crowded sts eet of one ofour great cities.

When our heart has been thoroughly purified,the disorder of our thoughts will cause us lesstrouble, it will hardly have any hold upon us.Meanwhile, we must ceaselessly watch and combat.S1. Bernard 1points out to us the means to gainthe victory. "Place at the door of your memorya porter called the remembrance of your profession,and when your mind feels itself overwhelmed byweight of shameful thoughts, let it reproach itselfin these terms: Come, now, ought you to think onsuch things, you who are a priest, you who are acleric, you who are a monk? Does it become aservant of God, a friend of God, to dwell upon suchthoughts were it only for an instant? So also at thedoor of your will, where carnal desires usually dwelllike a family at home, place a sentinel named thememory of your heavenly country; for it has thepower to expel evil desires as one wedge drives outanother. Finally, beside reason's couchyou must post a guardian so inexorable that hespares no one, and this guardian is the remem-brance of Hell." The memory of the Passion,and also that of benefits received are likewiseexcellent door-keepers; but the most vigilant willever be the love of God.

4. Purity of the will. Our will is pure when itno longer desires anything but the will of God.It is pure in its interior dispositions, when it is

SI. Bernard. S~"". 3:1 til Iii".


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SUCCESS IN MENTAL PRAYER 39thoroughly resolved to submit to the laws of Godand of His Church, to our rules, to the orders ofsuperiors, to the guidance of Providence; in aword, when it is ready to do always what Godwills, in the time and manner that He wills, andfor the motives that please Him. God, thus beingmaster of our will in its interior dispositions, willalso be master of its external acts; the source willcommunicate its own purity to the stream.

We must, above all, take care to maintain our willin this habitual tendency, and when we must passon to actions, especially if they flatter some passion,or if they are in harmony with some natural inclina-tion, we must watcli over our intentions to purifythem and make them supernatural, and over ouractions themselves lest they deviate from thestraight path and end in self-love.

The purity of the will contribut

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Ways of Mental Prayer