# Meditations On The Mysteries Of Our Holy Faith/Volume 1/Introduction

THE
INTRODUCTION TO THE MEDITATIONS,
CONTAINING
A SUMMARY OF THE THINGS TO BE MINDED
IN THE
PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER.
So high and sovereign is the exercise of mental prayer, in which we meditate upon the mysteries of our holy faith, and converse familiarly with Almighty God, that the principal master of it can be no other but the Holy Ghost Himself, who, as St. John says, is the unction from whom we receive all things; by whose inspiration the holy Fathers learned it, and left us in writing many counsels, and documents of much importance, how to exercise it with profit, following the motion of that principal master whom they followed; in imitation of whom, availing myself of their doctrine and experience, I will here make a summary of the principal things which mental prayer comprehends, which shall be brief, clear, and distinct, that all may understand it, and reduce it to practice; referring, wherever I shall be found too brief, to that which other doctors have written more at large.
Nevertheless, for the manifestation of the truth, and authority of what I am to say, as well in this summary as in the meditations of this book, I will allege in the margin the ​sources whence I have drawn the same, which are three. i. The first is the sacred Scripture, the principal fountain of this spiritual science, in which is contained life everlasting, and the most excellent means of attaining a foretaste of it in this life, and full possession of it in the life to come. ii. The second fountain is, the holy Fathers, who were the masters of mystical divinity, amongst whom I shall make choice of the most ancient and most illuminated in it by Almighty God — such as were SS. Dionysius, Basil, Augustine, Chrysostom, Cassian, Gregory, Bernard, and such others; and with them I will likewise take for my guide our father and founder blessed Ignatius of glorious memory, following the order and form which he left us in his book which he made of Spiritual Exercises, the authority of which is very great, as well because we believe, (and not without great foundation,) that he wrote it by special revelation and inspiration of Almighty God, as the Holy Spirit interiorly dictated to him, and taught him these exercises; as also because it was approved by Pope Paul III. in a bull granted the year 1548, which is in the beginning of the said book, whose approbation experience has confirmed by the marvellous effects which our Lord God has wrought and daily works in those who exercise his meditations; as is largely prosecuted by Father Pedro de Ribadeneyra in the history which he wrote of the life of this excellent man.
I will here add only concerning the said book, that the kingdom of heaven, which is comprehended in the doctrine it lays down, is (as is also the divine Scripture
whence he extracted it) like a grain of mustard-seed, which being the least of all seeds, grows up to such greatness that it becomes as it were a tree, upon whose branches the fowls of the air repose: for if we behold but the outside and appearance of this book, it is little, and brief, and written ​in a plain and simple style; but if we regard what it contains within, it is effectual in virtue, ardent in affections, lofty in sense, large in discourse, and ample in the several manners of prayer and contemplation; insomuch that upon the branches of it they may find rest and spiritual food who, like the fowls of the air, soar aloft in contemplation, having (as St. Paul says) their conversation and interest in heaven. And this will be clearly made manifest by that which we shall point at in this brief introduction, and shall more amply discourse of in the six parts of this book; which are, as it were, six branches of the tree of these sovereign exercises, whose shadow will be the refuge of such as are tempted and afflicted — its leaves will be the health of such as are soul-sick — its odoriferous flowers will comfort such as are young beginners in virtue — its sweet fruits will fortify such as are proficients and go forward in it — and whose round cup will be the resting-place of such as are perfect. For all will find meditations and forms of praying accommodated to their states, as soon after will be seen.
iii. And that it may appear how the piety and sovereignty of mystical theology is founded upon the rigorous verity of scholastic divinity, the third source of what I shall say will be the school-doctors, of whom I will only allege the angelical doctor St. Thomas, for that he alone is fully available for ten thousand witnesses; whose doctrine is sound, secure, and well approved; and with the verities of scholastic divinity he points at the profoundest conceptions and highest sense of mystical theology; for both of them are sisters, and in both of them this glorious doctor is surpassingly excellent, as was his master St. Augustine, and his companion St. Bonaventure, of whose doctrine I shall likewise make use. And since, notwithstanding I have had so good guides, yet as a man I may err in what I shall write, my ​will is that all shall be entirely subject to the correction of our holy mother the Catholic Church, which is the foundation and pillar of truth, from which whenever, either through ignorance or negligence, I shall depart, I forthwith revoke whatsoever I have said.
Chap. I. On the nature of mental prayer, showing what it is.
Mental prayer (of which we here treat) is a work of the three interior faculties of the soul, memory, understanding, and will, exercising, by God's assistance, their acts about those mysteries and truths which our holy Catholic faith teaches; and speaking within ourselves to God our Lord, conversing familiarly with Him, begging of Him His gifts, and negotiating all whatsoever is necessary for our salvation and perfection: insomuch that the substance of mental prayer consists principally in these four things.
1. The first is, with the memory to be mindful of God our Lord, with whom we are to speak, and to negotiate; and to be mindful also of the mystery that is to be meditated, passing briefly through the memory, with clearness and distinction, that which is to be the matter of the meditation, as it is taught by faith, and as it is divided into several points in the form that we shall hereafter explain. And that this memory or recordation be not dry, it is good to join to it the acts of faith, believing with the greatest liveliness that we can the verities of that mystery, because God, who is all truth, has revealed them, making of faith a ladder to mount up to perfect knowledge, seeing that (as Isaias says) " unless you believe, you shall not understand."
2. The second thing is, with the understanding to make several reasonings and considerations about that mystery, ​inquiring and searching out the verities comprehended in it, with all the causes, properties, effects, and circumstances that it has, considering them very particularly, in such a manner that the understanding may form a true, proper, and entire conception of the thing that it meditates, and may remain convinced, and persuaded to receive, and to embrace those truths that it has meditated, to propound them to the will, and to move it thereby to exercise its actions.
3. The third is, with the freedom of our will to draw forth various affections or virtuous acts, conformable to that which the understanding has meditated — some with regard to oneself — others with regard to God our Lord; as are hatred of ourselves, sorrow for our sins, confusion for our own misery, love of God, trust in His mercy, praises of God, thanksgiving for benefits received, desire to obtain true virtues, effectual purposes to do good works and to change and amend our life; resignation of ourselves to the will of God offering to do and to suffer whatsoever God shall ordain and dispose, and such other like; which we call affections, because they are to be done with the affection and liking of the will, moved by what the understanding has demonstrated to it: and in these consist that which we call substantial devotion, from which arises the spiritual peace and alacrity of the soul. And for the sake of them (as says St. Thomas) is meditation and contemplation principally ordained, and those other acts of the understanding which are exercised in mental prayer; for which cause St. John Damascene says of it, that it is " ascensus mentis in Deum," " an ascending of our spirit to God," joining with Him by actual knowledge and love.
4. The fourth thing is, to make petitions to God our Lord, entertaining speech and conference with Him, by way of asking of Him what the will has desired and the under ​standing has speculated, and whatsoever else that we have need of; in which consists that which we properly call prayer, which is an humble, confident and fervent petition of such things as are convenient for us, and which we desire to obtain of Almighty God.
These petitions and colloquies are to be directed sometimes to the Eternal Father, at other times to His only-begotten Son Christ Jesus, and at other times to the whole most Blessed Trinity, alleging to them titles and reasons that may move them to grant us what we demand.
i. These titles may be taken from three parts — some from the part of God, as He is God, as for instance, asking Him something for His goodness for the love that He bears us; for the desire He has of our good, for that He commands us to ask Him; for the glory of His holy name, that He may be praised by all His creatures; and finally, there may be made as it were a litany of His perfections and attributes, saying unto Him, " Grant me, O Lord, what I require of Thee, for Thine own sake," "for Thy charity," "for Thy mercy," "for Thy liberality," "for Thy wisdom," "for Thine omnipotence," "for Thine immensity," "for Thine eternity," &c.
ii. Other titles there are on the part of Christ Jesus our Lord, true God and man, as, for instance, by His incarnation and nativity; by His circumcision and presentation in the Temple; by His flying into Egypt; by His fastings; His hunger, cold, and nakedness, and by all the labour and travel of His preaching; again, by the dolours, ignominies, and torments of His passion and death; alleging His sweating of blood, His imprisonment, His scourging, thorns, nails, gall, vinegar, with the rest; sometimes speaking to the Eternal Father, beseeching Him to hear me for the love of His Son, for the services He did Him, and the pains that for His love ​He endured; at other times speaking to the Son of God, alleging unto Him the love that He bore us, the office that He holds of our Redeemer and Advocate, and the great price that we cost Him; at other times speaking to the Holy Ghost begging of Him the like, for the love that He bears to Christ Jesus our Lord, and for His merits. And here likewise we may make another litany of the virtues of our Redeemer, alleging His humility of heart, His poverty of spirit, His meekness, His obedience, His patience, His mercy, and His charity, with all the rest.
iii. Other titles there are on the part of our necessity and misery, alleging before our Lord, like David, that we were conceived in sin, that we have disordered passions, strong enemies, very great occasions and dangers, and that without Him we are able to do nothing; that we are His creatures made according to His own image and likeness, and that for this cause the Devil persecutes us to destroy us, and that therefore it appertains to Him to protect us. And in conclusion we may make another catalogue of our own sins and miseries, counting them before God, and exaggerating them very much with sorrow of heart; for the more we shall exaggerate them the more we excite God's mercy to remedy them.
Beside this, those men that are perfect may in some case allege with humility their fore-passed services in imitation of Holy King Ezechias, who asked of God the prolongation of his life, alleging to Him that he had "walked before" Him " with a perfect heart." And the like did Christ our Lord, when, after the sermon of the Supper, he prayed to his Father, as will be seen in its proper place.
These three kinds of titles may be mingled one with another, after the form that David said: " For thy name's sake, O Lord, thou wilt pardon my sin, for it is great."
​These and other such-like reasons may be alleged in prayer, rather to move our own heart to ask with fervour, devotion and confidence, than to move God to hear us. For our Lord much more desires to hear us, and to give us the good spirit that we ask, ihan we to receive it, seeing (as St. Augustine says) " God would not have commanded us to ask of Him, if He had not a will and a desire to give us what we ask and asking of Him in the manner aforesaid, we fulfil all that which the Apostle commands us when he says that our petitions should present themselves before God, not alone, but accompanied with three marvellous actions, that is to say — with "prayer," which may raise our spirit and the affections thereof to the presence of God — with "supplication" which may allege reasons for being heard — and with " thanksgiving" for benefits received, which may dispose us to receive those which we ask afresh.
These are the principal things which mental prayer comprehends, whose order St. Augustine declares, saying, " Meditatio parit scientiam, scientia compunctionem, compunctio devotionem, devotio perficit orationem " Frequent meditation engenders science and knowledge of a man's self and of God knowledge engenders affections of compunction for our sins and miseries; compunction awakens affections of devotion towards God for His greatness and mercies; and devotion perfects prayer, making our spirit to join itself lovingly to Almighty God, and to ask of Him things decent and fitting, and in such manner as is convenient.
It remains that we explain and declare the manner how every one of these things is to be done, beginning with that which is most proper and essential to prayer.
Chap. II. On the manner op speaking to God in mental prayer
By what has been said, it appears that the essence or nature of mental prayer properly consists in speaking within ourselves to God our Lord, for two principal ends.
1. The first is, to praise Him and bless Him for what He is; and to give Him thanks for the benefits and rewards He bestows upon us, exercising that sovereign manner of prayer which St. Paul counsels us, saying, " Be ye filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father by him." In which words the holy Apostle points at four divine affections, with which we may speak in our hearts to God our Lord for the end aforesaid, that is to say, psalms, hymns, spiritual canticles, and thanksgiving.
i. Interior " psalms" are acts of the love of God, with effectual desires and determinations to serve and obey Him, in which we offer ourselves to keep most perfectly His commandments and counsels. This is that music which David calls the " psaltery " "of ten strings:" for as he that plays on the psaltery, or harp, handles all its ten strings at one time, at other times some of them, and sometimes all of them together, so in prayer making this music to God, we are to have fervent desires to exercise the virtues of obedience, humility, patience, and the rest, now one, then another, and sometimes all together; as likewise stedfast purpose to keep God's commandments and His counsels, laying hand now upon one, then upon another, and sometimes upon all together.
​ii. " Hymns" are affections of the praises of God, reckoning up all the excellences and perfections that He has, and the works that He has done, for which He is worthy to be praised and glorified of all creatures. Sometimes I may say with the Seraphim, " Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts!" or instead of this word "holy " I may put in other like words, saying, " Good," "merciful," "just," "wise" and "powerful" — "art Thou, my Lord, and most worthy to have Thy sanctity and Thy greatness preached by the Seraphim." Sometimes, with the elders in the Apocalypse, I will say, " 'Worthy' art Thou, O ' Lamb ' of God who didst die for us, ' to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction' for ever and ever. Amen." And at other times, with the three children of Babylon that were in the furnace, I will invite all creatures to praise and glorify God. And, with David, I will excite my own soul and all its faculties to bless our Lord.
iii. " Spiritual canticles" are affections of spiritual joy and alacrity, rejoicing that God is who He is, and for the infinite good that He has in Himself, for the glory given to Him by the saints in heaven, for the services done Him by the just upon the earth; rejoicing within ourselves for the hope of eternal good, and for the possession which the blessed enjoy, saying that of the Apocalypse, " Hallelujah! for the Lord our God the almighty hath reigned. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has prepared herself."
iv. Thanksgivings are acts of thankfulness for the benefits we have received of our Lord, recounting them all very often, and praising Him for every one of them; and I should not only give Him thanks for the benefits I myself have received, but also for those which He has done to the ​angels in heaven, and to all the men upon earth, and to the insensible creatures that know not how to thank Him, and even for those He has done to the devils themselves, and to the damned, that have no will to be thankful unto Him.
With these four affections we may speak to our Lord in prayer, to the end of glorifying Him, endeavouring (as St. Paul says), that the Holy Spirit be the beginning of our interior speeches, Christ Jesus our Saviour be the middle or mediator, and the Father everlasting the end and person to whom they be directed, although, as has been said, they may likewise be directed to all the three Persons.
2. The second end why we are to speak to God our Lord, is to require of Him new celestial gifts and graces, ordained to our own salvation and perfection and to His glory. These petitions and colloquies may be made in many forms, according to the particular disposition of him that prays and speaks to God.
Sometimes we must speak to Him as a son speaks to his father, asking of Him all such things as a good son may and ought to ask of a good father, with the spirit of love and confidence. And in this manner we speak to God in that prayer of our Pater-noster, where Christ our Lord declares what things we are to ask, as we shall see in the meditation which will be made upon that prayer in the third part.
Sometimes we must speak to God as a poor wretch does to a rich and merciful man, begging of him an alms. With this spirit prayed David very often, calling himself " poor " and " a beggar," begging a spiritual alms of God, who, as St. Paul says, " is rich unto all that call upon Him."
Sometimes we may speak to God as a sick man speaks to a physician, declaring to him his infirmities, and desiring remedy of them; or as a man that has a suit, or as one ​that is guilty, speaks to a judge, when he informs him of his right, and requires a favourable sentence or pardon of his crime. And in this case our colloquy must be accompanied with affection of humiliation, of sorrow for sin, of purposes of satisfaction and amendment; of which we shall see hereafter many examples in the meditations upon the miracles and parables of our Saviour Christ.
Finally, at other times we may speak to God with that spirit that a scholar speaks to his master, requiring of him light and instruction in such things as we know not; or as one friend speaks to another when he talks with him of some weighty affair, asking counsel, direction and aid. And if confidence and love shall so far embolden us, our soul may speak to God as the bride speaks to her spouse in several colloquies, with which the book of Canticles is replenished.
In all these ways we may speak to our Lord in prayer, clothing ourselves with the affections before mentioned, sometimes with one and sometimes with another; for all are fitting to us to use in treating with our God, who is our physician, our judge, our friend and the spouse of our souls. True it is that the greatest certainty in these petitions and colloquies depends principally upon the Holy Spirit, who (as St. Paul says) " asks for us with unspeakable groanings:" for with His inspiration He teaches us, and moves us to ask, ordering our petitions, and stirring up those affections with which they are to be made. To which purpose St. Bernard said that " devotion is the tongue of the soul," which whosoever has is very skilful in talking and reasoning with the Eternal Word. But notwithstanding this, we, for our part, must aid ourselves, and learn to treat and confer with Almighty God, observing the manner and the affection with which men speak one to another in the cases rehearsed.
To which I add, that although prayer is properly a ​speech and colloquy with our Lord, we may, notwithstanding, speak in it to ourselves, and confer with our own soul; sometimes, (as St. Paul says,) exhorting ourselves, and reviving ourselves in the affections and petitions rehearsed; at other times reprehending ourselves for our faults, and for our want of zeal, and being ashamed of ourselves that we serve Almighty God so negligently. In this way David spoke many times to his soul, saying, " Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why dost thou disquiet me? Hope thou in God, for I will still give praise to Him, the salvation of my countenance, and my God." "Be thou, O my soul! subject to God; for from Him is my patience." From these colloquies we must next proceed to speak to God Himself, as did the prodigal son when he spoke to himself, saying, "How many hired servants in my father's house abound with bread, and I here perish with hunger! I will arise and will go to my father, and say to him, ' Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, I am not now worthy to be called thy son: make me,' if it so please thee, ' as one of thy hired servants."
Finally, we may likewise, in prayer, speak to our Blessed Lady the Virgin, to the angels and saints, for the same two ends aforesaid; either to praise and bless them for their sanctity and virtues, and for the benefits which they do us, or to ask them to aid and favour us in the affairs of our salvation: for which we may likewise allege to them some of those motives which we laid down in the preceding chapter, and other special ones beseeming each of them. To the most sacred Virgin may be alleged that she is our mother and the advocatrix of sinners, and that for our remedy her Son gave her this office in charge; alleging also the love that she bears Him, and her desire that all ​should love and serve Him, beseeching her to do for us the office of a mother and advocatrix, and to demonstrate to us that love and desire of hers in obtaining for us what we request, that we may the better serve Him whom she so dearly loves. Also to our angel guardian may be alleged, that he comply with the office he holds to present our prayers to God, and to procure a good despatch of them; and that his honour is interested in our being good and having a happy issue of our endeavours for heaven; and that, seeing that the Devil sleeps not to tempt us, that he sleep not, but be watchful to defend us. After this manner we may speak to the rest of the saints that shall offer themselves in the matter of meditation, or to whom we are devoted, rather to stir up devotion in ourselves than to move them by it: for, as they love us and desire our salvation, so they are very much inclined to solicit it.
Chap. III. On the virtues accompanying mental prayer, and their excellences.
By what has been explained in the two preceding chapters, it follows how excellent a thing mental prayer is, in which are exercised so many and so heroic acts of the principal virtues that there are in the Christian life. On this account St. John Chrysostom said, with very great reason, that " as when a queen enters into a city there enter with her, in her company, many ladies and noblemen of the court, beside her guard and innumerable people that follow her, so when prayer enters into the soul, there enter with her all the virtues accompanying the spirit of prayer."
Some virtues go before, preparing the way and disposing the soul to pray as it ought, as are faith, humility, reverence, and purity of intention; and others which we shall speak of hereafter, according to that saying of the Wise Man, ​" Before prayer prepare thy soul, and be not as a man that tempteth God." Other virtues go side by side with her, as are charity, religion, devotion, and wisdom, and those other gifts of the Holy Ghost which illuminate the understanding, and aid marvellously to prayer, as will be seen in the twenty-seventh meditation of the fifth part of this work. Innumerable other virtues follow after her, as are fervent desires and purposes of all that is good in matter of obedience and patience, of temperance, modesty, chastity, and the rest And as well the one as the other interlacing themselves with prayer, exercise among themselves divers acts that are an ornament and decking the one of the other; for humility joins herself with confidence and charity; charity with religion and thanksgiving; religion with obedience and resignation; and thus with a celestial and divine accord they make a harmony of many voices. Upon which many holy Fathers say that prayer makes men like angels, not only because it is a work of the superior faculties, in which men are like them, but because it communicates to men an angelical life full of purity and sanctity. By prayer (when it is perfect) they participate in the ardent love of the seraphim — the fulness of knowledge of the cherubim — the peace and quietness of the thrones — the rule over themselves of the dominations — the power against devils of the powers — the magnanimity for marvellous things of the virtues — the discretion in government of the principalities — the fortitude in difficult and hard things of the archangels — and the obedience in all things of the angels — and, finally, the wisdom, chastity, and cleanness of the celestial spirits. " For there can be nothing (says St. Chrysostom) more wise, more just, or more holy than a man that speaks to God as it is meet for Him from whom he receives most abundantly those gifts ​and graces in which consists true wisdom and perfect justice and sanctity." The reason of this is, that as our Lord is very gracious and gentle, and inspires us to pray, He speaks to us when we speak to Him, and converses familiarly with those that enter into their heart to treat and converse with Him. And the conversation and speech of God is not of words alone hut of works; for (as St. Bernard says) " Locutio verbi est infusio doni." " For God to speak is to communicate gifts infusing his graces and virtues upon them to whom he speaks;" filling them with that spiritual " joy unspeakable," and with that " peace that surpasses all understanding." And upon this David said, " I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me; for He will speak peace unto His people, and unto His saints, and unto them that are converted to the heart."
It is for this cause that in prayer we must speak in such a manner to God, as to be attentive to hearken, and to hear what He speaks to us by His inspirations, to obey them, and to dispose ourselves to receive those gifts which thereby He intends to communicate to us; as we shall see in the second part in the twenty-sixth meditation.
By what has been said appears the excellency and necessity of mental prayer, of which Cassian says, that it has such a connexion with all virtues, that neither can they be perfectly obtained nor preserved without prayer, nor perfect prayer be obtained without them; for it is (says he) the end of all, and to it are directed all the labours and pains we take to gain them; inasmuch as prayer, of which we here treat, in its perfect degree embraces union with God, by the means of actual knowledge and love, with great joy in possessing Him. Hence it arises that God (as St. John Climacus says) in prayer pays in ready money ​a hundred times the double of that which is left or endured for His cause, beside great pledges of the last reward that is to be given in the life everlasting. I might saymany things of this sovereign virtue which I omit, because this book is written for those that desire to exercise it on account of the great estimation in which they hold it. And in the prologues and introductions to every one of the six parts of this book, something will be spoken to discover the excellence of this sovereign exercise, and the good that proceeds of the same.
Chap. IV. On the matter of mental prayer fit for meditation.
The matter of mental prayer in which the three faculties of the soul (especially the understanding) are to exercise their acts, is all that which God has revealed in the divine Scripture, especially the principal mysteries of our faith, which are most expressed and recommended in it.
These mysteries may be reduced in general to three orders, accommodated to the different states of those that meditate, among whom some are sinners that desire to get out of their sins, or beginners that desire to mortify the vices and passions of their former life; and these walk in the way which we call the purgative way, whose end is to purify the soul of all these vices, and to obtain cleanness of heart. Others pass more forward, and become proficients in virtue, and these walk in that way which we call the illuminative way, of which the end is to enlighten the soul with the splendour and brightness of many verities and virtues, and to obtain great augmentation and increase of it. Others are already perfect and very much exercised, and these walk in that way which we call unitive, of which the ​end is to unite and join our spirit to Almighty God, in the union of perfect love.
Each one of these persons is to have matter of meditation, accommodated and agreeing to his state and aim, from which he may easily draw forth the affections and purposes that his necessity requires. And although this matter may be reduced to three orders of mysteries and verities, accommodated to those three states and ways which have been described, yet, for the greater perspicuity and clearness, we reduce it in this book to six parts; assigning two to those that are beginners, two to those that are proficients, and other two to those that are most perfect, in this form ensuing.
1. Sinners who desire truly to be converted, and to turn to God, and to change their life, are to take for the matter of their meditation their own sins, and all such things as may aid them to know the number and enormity of them, or that may cause a detestation of them, and sorrow for having committed them. And inasmuch as fear is usually the beginning of justification, whatever awakes this fear is matter of meditation accommodated to them; such are the last things of man, as death, judgment particular and universal, hell, and such other like things, which will be put in the first part, with certain forms of prayer, accommodated for the examination of the conscience, for confession, and communicating, and for the obtaining of perfect justification, which is the end of the purgative way.
2. Such as are already justified, and desire to treasure up virtues, and to increase in them, are to take for the proper matter of their meditation the mysteries of the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, whilst He lived in this mortal life; because His life and doctrine, His passion and death, formed a most perfect pattern of all virtue for all classes of those ​that are just, although in a different manner; for (as St Augustine said, and after him St. Thomas) charity, when it is already begotten, and is born by the means of penances, has those three states which have been mentioned — of spiritual childhood, of augmentation or increase, and of perfection.
The newly justified, which are the beginners, and, as it were, infants newly-begotten in the being of grace, are to take for the matter of their meditation the mysteries of the incarnation and childhood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, of which we treat in the second part, and in those meditations they will find sufficient motives, as well to prosecute and continue on the journey of the purgative way, mortifying and purifying themselves from those vices and passions which have remained in them as dregs of their former life, as also to begin the journey of the illuminative way, treasuring up virtues contrary to their vices, and accommodated to their state.
Such as are proficients, and go onward increasing in virtue, have two ways to this — the one by doing, and the other by suffering; I mean, either by exercising divers works of virtue of their own election, which appertain to the active and contemplative life, or by suffering with great perfection the troubles, persecutions, and afflictions inflicted upon them by the hand of another. And this way, though it be the sharper, is the most effectual to increase in virtues, and to attain to their perfection.
In these two ways our Saviour Christ walked with great excellence, of whom St. Augustine says, that His exercises among men were " mira facere et mala pati," " to do marvellous things and to suffer painful things," and all for our instruction; of which we treat in the meditations of ​the third and fourth part For in the third we will put the mysteries of what He did and said the three years of His preaching, from His baptism to His last entrance into Jerusalem, and in the fourth the mysteries of His passion and death. And although both mysteries teach us to do and to suffer, yet the one is most resplendent and shining in the first, and the other in the last, which are the most powerful to move us to all kind of virtue, with greater excellence and perfection.
3. Finally, those which arrive to the state of perfection, walking in the unitive way, have two other paths to attain to the perfect union of love. The first is, by contemplating the glorious life of our Saviour Christ, and the wonderful works that He did after His resurrection, sending upon His disciples the Holy Ghost, which is the Spirit of Love; and of these mysteries the fifth part treats. The other way is, by contemplating the mysteries of the Divinity and Trinity of God, His perfections and benefits, of which the sixth part treats. And these two last parts are most proper to such as are perfect, according to the saying of David in Psalm ciii. " The high hills are a refuge for the harts, the rock for the irchins;" giving us to understand in a mystical sense, (as Cassian notes,) that perfect men who, like stags, run lightly in the way of heaven, feed themselves with the consideration of the mysteries of the divinity and glory of Christ, figured by the high mountains; but men full of prickles like irchins, with the prickles of their sins and imperfections, or afflicted with troubles, take for remedy the consideration of the earth and dust, and the mysteries of the humanity and humility of Christ Jesus our Lord, figured by the rock, in whose wounds they repose, and with whose doctrine and examples they sustain and profit themselves.
​By what has been said it follows that the meditations of these six parts are as the six wings of the Seraphim which God has upon earth, like unto those which the Prophet Isaias saw; with which they depart from what is gross and earthly, and fly to that which is celestial and heavenly, where, after they have purified, illustrated, and perfected themselves, they fly likewise to purify, illustrate, and perfect others, desiring to have all burn with the love with which they burn; since these meditations conduce to all these ends, and in all of them ought all men to be exercised — even those that have most advanced, though with a different end and manner. And the reason is, that as in the three degrees of souls, the vegetative proper to plants, the sensitive proper to brute beasts, and the reasonable proper to men, the superior, besides his own works, does likewise the works of the inferior, though after a more excellent manner; so also (as St. Thomas says) in the three states of people that' dedicate themselves to prayer and to the service of God, those which are proficients must exercise themselves in the meditations and works of the beginners, and the perfect in those of them both, but after a more perfect manner, drawing out of them the fruit which they intend with more advantage, that is, more perfect mortification of themselves, and a more excellent manner of imitating our Saviour Christ in His virtues.
Besides this, experience teaches, that when a great spirit or affection for any virtue whatsoever is predominant in a soul, upon what thing soever it meditates it takes occasion to feed and augment itself. If the spirit of humility predominate, whether he meditate upon hell or upon heaven, whether he think upon his own miseries or upon the divine excellences, he will draw out of all affections of humility. And if in his heart the spirit of love predominate, though ​he meditate upon judgment and hell, he converts all into the affections of love. So likewise beginners, proficients, and those that are perfect, upon whatsoever they meditate, may draw forth those affections and purposes that are fitting to their state and necessity.
Hence it is, that although by the ordinary law we are to observe the order propounded, yet need we not be so tied to it that it shall not be lawful to change it; it is sometimes even convenient; for some cannot apply themselves to considerations of fear who yet are easily moved with meditations of love, and others contrarily. Some find devotion and profit in considering the mysteries of the childhood of our Saviour Christ; others in considering the mysteries of His Passion; some in one mystery and some in another; and it is not good to force them overmuch, nor to draw them from their consideration to pass them to another in which they find not what they desired. And for this cause our Lord has provided the matter of meditation to be so copious and ample that every one may find somewhat that is fitting to his purpose.
Chap. V. On entrance into prayer.
It is the counsel of the Holy Ghost, before prayer to " prepare the soul;" for to go without preparation is as it were to tempt God, proposing the end and fruit of prayer without using the means ordained to obtain the same. It is therefore necessary before we enter into prayer to carry the matter foreseen, which we are to meditate upon; for ordinarily meditation cannot be attentive, nor recollected, if the matter be not first prepared, well digested, and divided into points after that manner that we here shall prescribe. And yet for all this nothing hinders, if our Lord by special inspiration shall move us to think upon some other ​thing, but that we may occupy ourselves therein, omitting till some other time that which before we had premeditated, because divine impulsion or moving is the principal cause of this work which we are to follow, provided, however, that it proceed not from lightness of mind nor instability of heart, to jump from one matter into another without sufficient cause. This being premised, before we begin meditation we are to do these things following.
1 . First, we are to lift up our heart and the faculties of our soul to God our Lord, beholding Him as He is there present with an interior, attentive, reverend, and loving regard; since if a man is to speak with a prince, it is necessary that he go to his palace, or to the place where he is, and present himself before him; for with one that is absent we cannot speak; and seeing God is present in heaven, and in earth, and in every place, assisting all and beholding all, when I am about to pray, and to speak to Him, I need not go to seek Him in any other place, but to quicken my faith, and to behold how He is there present, persuading myself that when I pray I am not alone, but that there is also with me the most holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to whom I speak, who sees me and hears me, and is accustomed to answer within my heart, with inspirations and illuminations, communicating the light of truth to the understanding, and fervent affections of devotion to the will, and infusing gifts and virtues, and other graces, into the soul, as has been said before.
Sometimes I may behold God as he is round about me encompassing me on every side, and myself within Him, as the fishes are within the sea. At other times I may behold Him as he is within me by essence, presence, and power, knowing what I do, and aiding me to do it. And in this manner is fulfilled the saying of our Lord Christ, " When thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber," that is, into thy ​heart, " and having shut the door" of thy senses, " pray to thy heavenly Father in secret; and thy Father who" is there, and " seeth in secret, will repay thee," that is, will give you what you ask.
This truth of the presence of God within me and round about me wheresoever lam praying, I am much to quicken, that it may move me to reverence, confidence and due attention. And if with this consideration I perceive myself moved to these and other like affections of devotion, I may well detain myself to enjoy this taste that God gives me, for the time it will last; for this already is a prayer, and a very good one. But the ordinary rule will be to detain myself in this thought during a Pater-noster, although in all the time of my meditation I must not lose out of sight the presence of God, according to that of David: " The meditation of my heart is always in Thy sight:" but in the time of my petitions and colloquies I must renew it with more fervour, " pouring out," as David says, " my prayer," in the u sight" of our Lord.
2. Secondly, this done, I must make a great and profound reverence to the Majesty of God, bending before Him the knees of my heart, and of my body, once, twice, and three times, as they do that enter into the presence of kings. I am to adore him in spirit, acknowledging Him for my God and my Lord, the Father of immense Majesty, and the King most worthy of infinite reverence; and with my body to humble myself, even to the fastening my mouth to the ground; and yet more, to prostrate myself, as did our Lord Jesus Christ in the prayer of the garden, of whom St. Paul says, that He " was heard" by the Eternal Father, for the great " reverence" He bare Him; giving us to under​stand how much it imports to reverence God in prayer, to the end that He may hear us.
3. This humiliation being made, I will kneel down in the place appointed for prayer, and forthwith it is good to cross myself with inward feeling of the words that then are spoken; desiring of God by that sign to deliver me from those enemies that are wont to molest us in prayer, saying with this affection, " Per signum crucis de inimicis nostris libera nos Deus noster," " By the sign of the cross from our enemies deliver us, our God;" and then presently I should add, i{ In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti," " In the name of," &c, as one that intends to begin his prayer not in his own virtues, but in the virtues of the most blessed Trinity. Some are accustomed immediately to say the general confession, in order to begin with humiliation, and to comply with the saying of the Wise man, that " the just" man in the beginning of prayer is first an accuser of himself.
Others are used to begin with thanksgiving, following the order that St. Basil prescribes; of which we will speak in the first part, in the meditation of the examination of the conscience.
But although everyone may begin with that which is most conducive to his devotion, yet that which generally is convenient for all is, to begin with a short prayer, preparatory, as it were, to that which we intend; in which we may beseech our Lord to direct that work to His honour and glory, and to give grace necessary to perform it as He requires. This brief prayer I must make speaking to God our Lord, whom I behold as present, saying to Him with great earnestness and affection of heart:
Colloquy. — I offer to Thee, O Lord, whatever I shall here think, speak, or treat of, to the end that all may be ordained purely to Thy honour and glory; and ​I beseech Thee by what Thou art to assist me in this hour, to the end that I may assuredly pray in such manner as Thou requirest, for the glory of Thy most holy Name, and for the profit of my soul. Amen.
This manner of prayer may be directed to the Three Divine Persons in this form:
Sometimes to the Eternal Father, saying to Him, "Sovereign Father, I offer unto Thee this my prayer, united and incorporated with that of Thy only-begotten Son Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I beseech thee to aid me to pray in such manner as He prayed, that my prayer, as His was, may be acceptable to Thee."
At other times it may be directed to the Son of God, saying to Him, as did the Apostles, " My Redeemer and Master, teach me to pray, and aid me to pray with attention, purity, and fervour like to that which Thou hadst when Thou didst pray to Thy Father, that my prayer, as Thine was, may be acceptable to Him."
At other times to the Holy Ghost, saying to Him that of the apostle St. Paul: " Most Holy Spirit, I am an ignorant and wretched sinner, I know not what to pray for, nor how to ask it as behoveth me. Thou, my God, ask within me, moving me to ask with groanings unspeakable, that my prayer may be well received, proceeding from so noble a beginning as Thou art, to whom be honour and glory world without end. Amen."
In this way is fulfilled that which St. Dionysius says, that every theological or divine act (which that is that beholds God, and treats of Him and with Him) ought to begin with prayer, invoking and calling upon the favour of the Most Holy Trinity, who is present in every place, delivering up ourselves to Him with pure petitions, with a settled ​mind, and with an affection well disposed for the union which we aim at in this holy exercise.
Chap. VI. On the manner of meditating and discoursing in prayer, and how we are to resist distractions that then assail us.
The work of the understanding, which we call meditation, is one of the most difficult and hard that there is in mental prayer. For though it is easy to meditate upon divers things, running from one to another without order or method, yet it is very difficult to meditate upon one thing alone with attention, having the memory and understanding fixed upon God, without being distracted and diverted to other things. Even the greatest saints were wont to be sometimes molested by this, and complain of it. Job said of himself, " My thoughts are dissipated, tormenting my heart; they have turned night into day because they deprive me of the quietness of recollection, in which I was wont to spend the night. And David cried to God, saying, " My heart hath forsaken me," and has departed from my house: " be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me" from this trouble.
This very evil we all have experience of, and it is wont to proceed from divers roots and beginnings: i. From the Devil, to hinder us from the fruit of prayer, ii. From our own imagination, which is free, untamed, unstable, and illgoverned, iii. From some affections unmortified, which draw our thoughts after them; for "where" the "treasure is there" is also the " heart." iv. From cares which sting and divide the heart into a thousand parts, v. From weakness and coldness, through not enforcing nor applying ourselves to this noble exercise, vi. From ignorance, through not knowing how to reason or meditate, or how to search ​out the hidden truths, or to ponder them in such a way that they may move the will, and stir up affections of devotion. This ignorance, by the favour of Heaven, will be remedied by that form and method which I shall here prescribe.
i. In meditation, we are to establish ourselves very well in the truth of the mystery which faith teaches us, labouring to believe and to understand it truly as it passed and as it is revealed, ii. We are to inquire the true causes and roots from whence proceeded the matter that we meditate, excluding the causes that are false and apparent iii. By reasoning, we are to search out the true ends for which it was ordained, excluding all others that are contrary, iv. We are to inquire the effects proceeding from the matter; thaf is, the good or harm that it brings with it. And v. Certain properties and circumstances that accompany it. This will be clearly understood by this example.
If I would meditate upon the mysteries of the Incarnation — i. I must well consider and understand what our faith teaches; that is to say, that the Son of God joined to Himself in unity of person our human nature, in such a way that God is truly man, and man is God. ii. I am to inquire out the things before propounded, considering how the causes and roots of this work were not our merits, but only the bounty and mercy of Almighty God; and the ends were the redemption of the world and the manifestation of His divine goodness and charity, iii. I will consider the 'profit that thereby came to us, viz., pardon of sins, destruction of death, entrance into heaven, and such like; and then the loss we had sustained if this work had not been done, remaining all enemies of God, slaves of the Devil, and condemned to hell. iv. The circumstances of this work touching place, and time, and manner; and what properties of body and soul Almighty God took when He was incarnate.
​In each of these things the understanding is to make a pause, detaining itself in every one so long as it shall find devotion and spiritual relish, without caring to pass to another, moving the will to divers affections of love and confidence, as has been said, making petitions and colloquies with our Lord according to what has been meditated and desired. And when our understanding has considered well one of these things, it may pass to another with the like quietness and calmness of mind, and so proceed in the rest Of all this we shall see manifest examples in the ensuing meditations, especially in the first, which will be a pattern for the rest.
I only notice that when the Holy Spirit, with special inspiration, moves us to pray, all is easy and sweet; for He refreshes the memory, revives the reasoning, rains showers of meditations, enkindles the affections, grants the petitions, disposes the colloquies, and makes perfect the whole work of prayer, ourselves co-operating without trouble. But when this special succour is wanting, it is necessary that we ourselves, using our free will with the assistance of grace, which never fails us, apply our faculties to the exercise of their acts in the form aforesaid, by which we invite the Holy Spirit to aid us with the special succour of His inspirations. For spiritual men who exercise prayer should not be like ships of high building, that cannot sail without wind, but rather like galleys, that navigate both with the wind and with the oar; and when they fail of the prosperous wind of divine inspiration, they are to navigate with the oar of their faculties, aided by the divine favour, though it be not so sensible. And this kind of prayer is wont to be sometimes most profitable, (though it be not so pleasing,) on account of its greater merit, in fighting against distractions and dryness of heart. And if we persevere, using the oars of prayer, in His time Christ our Lord will come to visit ​us, with whose visitation this tempest will cease; as it happened in a like case to the holy apostles, as we shall see hereafter.
The weapons to fight against these distractions of heart and dryness of spirit are principally four.
1. The first is profound humility, acknowledging our weakness and misery, and being ashamed of ourselves to stand before God with such distraction; and accusing ourselves of our offences past and present, for which we are now chastised; for whoever in this manner " humbleth himself" in prayer " shall be" in that "exalted."
2. The second is fortitude of mind, making a manly resolution not advisedly to allow entrance to any thought that may separate us from that matter out of which we make our prayer, though it be one that ministers to us much pleasure, or seems of very much importance; for at that time nothing imports so much as to attend to my prayer and to God, before whom I am to pray; and when unwittingly I find myself diverted, I will turn again to tie the thread of the good thought and reasoning begun; and if a thousand times I should be diverted, I will turn a thousand times to the same without losing my courage or confidence, remembering that Abraham, persevering in chasing away the importunate birds that approached to the sacrifice, came to sleep a mysterious sleep, in which God discovered to him great secrets, and passed like fire through the midst of the sacrifice in testimony that He accepted it. So labouring with perseverance to chase away importunate thoughts that disquiet me in the sacrifice of prayer, I shall come, with God's favour, to sleep the quiet sleep of contemplation, in which He may illuminate my soul with His light that I may know Him, and inflame it with the fire of His love that I may love Him.
​3. The third weapon is prayer itself, beseeching our Lord to " build" in my soul a city of " Jerusalem," that it may become a vision of peace, collecting my thoughts and wandering affections that they may inhabit there and busy themselves quietly in prayer. The like will I beseech the holy angels, who assist those that pray. And in this manner I will employ all my strength; (for prayer is so powerful that it can obtain of God all things, and itself with them;) using in the midst of these disturbances some brief prayers to this purpose. Sometimes I will say with David, " My heart hath forsaken me: be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me" from the violence I suffer, and " look down, O Lord, to help me."
At other times I will say with the same royal prophet, "My soul is as earth without water to Thee; hear me speedily, O Lord, my spirit hath fainted away." At other times I will cry out with the apostles in the midst of the tempest, saying, " Lord, save" me, for I " perish."
Or like the blind whose prayer was hindered by the press of the people, I will lift up my voice, saying, "Son of David, have mercy on me." And if I persevere crying, though it be with dryness and violence, our Lord Jesus Christ will not fail to have, compassion on me, as He had on this blind man; which we shall consider in its place.
4. The last weapon must be a great confidence in God our Lord, persuading ourselves that, seeing He commands us to pray, He will give us grace and help for the same, by which we may be able to resist the Devil, to bridle our imagination, to repress our passions, to moderate our cares, and to cast from us our lukewarmness, that they may not hinder us in the exercise of prayer. But with this confidence we must join diligence, endeavouring, as Cassian says, before prayer to remove all such occasions as we ​would not should distract us in it, imitating in this the subtlety of our adversary, who (as St. Nilus the abbot says)
ordains all his temptations, with which in the daytime he tempts spiritual persons, to hinder them from prayer and its fruit. He tempts them with gluttony to make them in prayer heavy and sleepy. He tempts them with impatience to disquiet them; with curiosity of the senses to distract them; with multitude of business to disturb them; and with pride and ingratitude to make them dry. And seeing we ought to be no less provident and careful of our good than the devil is of our evil, there is great reason so to order our works and business of the day that they may all help to further well our prayer. And so with this, in some way, we shall fulfil what Christ our Saviour said: "It behoveth always to pray, and not to be weary;"
for he always prays that spends his whole time in prayer or in preparing himself for it With this confidence I should enter into mental prayer, saying to the devils that of the psalm, " Depart from me, ye malignant, and I will search the commandments of my God." And to my powers, thoughts, and affections I will say that of another psalm: " Come, let us adore and fall down and weep before the Lord that made us; He is the Lord our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand."
Chap. VII. On the manner of aiding ourselves with the imagination and the tongue, and the rest of the faculties for mental prayer.
Although mental prayer, as has been said, is the work of the three supreme faculties of the soul, in regard of that part which is pure spirit, and is called mens, from whence this prayer also is called mental — yet, notwithstanding, the ​other faculties of the soul which are inferior also aid the exercise of it.
1. Among these, the first is the imaginative; which, when it is untamed and disordered, as it notably hinders prayer, so also aids much, when it can with facility form within itself certain figures or images of such things as are to be meditated, as if it were present According to this, it were good before we begin meditation to endeavour with the imagination to form within ourselves some figure or image of the things we intend to meditate with the greatest vividness and propriety that we are able. If I am to think upon hell, I will imagine some place like an obscure, strait, and horrible dungeon full of fire, and the souls therein burning in the midst of those flames. And if I am to meditate on the birth of Christ, I will form the figure of some open place without shelter, and a child wrapped in swaddling-clothes, laid in a manger; and so in the rest.
But here we are to notice, that this be done without fatiguing the head: for whoever finds much difficulty in forming such figures, it were better to leave them, and use only the spiritual faculties in the manner already mentioned. And contrariwise, those that are very imaginative are to be very well advised; because their vehement imaginations may be to them an occasion of many illusions, by supposing their imagination to be revelation, and that the image which they form within themselves is the thing itself which they imagine; and so, through their indiscretion they come to confuse their head, and convert to their hindrance that which, taken with moderation, might have been to their profit
2. The tongue likewise may help in prayer, for (as St Thomas says) mental prayer, and vocal, which is done with exterior words, are not contrary, but sisters, that help one another. Mental prayer is wont sometimes to break out ​into vocal, speaking to our Lord exterior words arising from the interior fervour and devotion: and vocal prayer is used to quicken the soul, to make it more attentive to mental. For when, being in it, we perceive ourselves to be distracted or dry, it is a good remedy to speak some words that may awaken and re-collect us either speaking to our Lord or to ourselves; for as the body aids the soul, so the works of the body are accustomed to aid those of the soul; and the exterior word, and that which the tongue speaks, helps to touch the heart. This (as St. Bonaventure remarks)
may be practised in two manners.
i. The one is, everyone composing the words as his necessity or devotion shall dictate to him, not standing upon this, whether they be well or ill ordered: for our Lord regards rather the disposition of the heart, and the fervour of the affections, than of the words, and He is better pleased with the rude speeches of the stammering child and penitent sinner than with the well-composed words of a learned man that is proud.
ii. The other manner is, saying some prayer made by another, as are those of the Church, or of some saint, appropriating them to himself, and speaking them with such feeling and affection as if he himself were composing them; after that manner which we will prescribe in the ninth chapter.
3. As for our corporal senses, there can be no certain rule given; for some find themselves best holding their eyes shut; others help themselves with opening them, looking up to heaven, or beholding some image. Some are troubled with the hearing of anything; others are inflamed with hearing some song or music of the Church; some feel devotion with striking themselves often on the breast, as St. Jerome ​did in imitation of the Publican; others with much bending of the knee, as did Simeon of the pillar, who prayed bowing the knee with his head even to the ground, and then raising up himself and repeating this innumerable times.
The like we may say of other motions and gestures of the body, as to stretch the arms in form of a cross, to lie prostrate on the ground, to stand fixed in one place, to walk in some part, or to sit in some lowly seat; in all which we must make choice of that which helps most to the quietness and devotion of the heart, having consideration of the weakness of him that prays, and of the edification of such as are present if the place be public; for in such case that settling of the body is to be used which may not be offensive to the standers by.
Chap. VIII. On the examination of prayer, and on the fruits that may be drawn from thence.
Prayer being ended, it is exceeding profitable to examine what has passed in us in it, and although this examination ought to be made after any work or exercise whatsoever of vocal prayer, whether it be divine offices, the Kosary or the Mass, yet particularly it ought to be done after retired mental prayer, in which a man has spent one or more hours.
1. First, I must examine whether I have observed the directions of those things that precede prayer; as whether I premeditated the matter of the meditation; whether I put myself well in the presence of God; whether I offered to Him this action in spirit; and what purity of intention I had in it, with such other like; being very sorrowful for any defect that I find, and purposing from that time forward to amend it.
2. Secondly, I must examine whether I was attentive, or distracted; whether devout or dry; whether I contented myself with discoursing only, (for that were no prayer, but ​study,) or whether I had good affections and purposes; whether I begged of God, and spake to Him in my colloquies with reverence and confidence, or without it. And if I find that it has gone well with me in all, I will give thanks to God for it, attributing this good success not to my diligence, but to His grace and mercy: but if I find that it has gone ill with me, I will examine the cause, whether it were any fault of mine, or any passion or disordered affection, or any negligence or remissness: and, being sorry for my fault, I will purpose to amend it, with determination to mortify myself, and to remove the cause of this defect.
3. Thirdly, I must examine the motions, and inspirations, or illuminations, and spiritual taste that I have felt; marking well what effects they have wrought in me, to know whether they spring from a good spirit or not, and to gain experience that may help me to know the variety of spirits. To which end it will help much to know the rules that are prescribed for this, of which we shall give many in the discourse of these meditations.
4. Fourthly, I must examine the resolutions that I made in prayer, to see when and how I am to put them in execution; and generally I must examine what fruit I draw from prayer and conversation with God: for if my prayer be a tree without fruit, it will be cursed like the fig-tree, and presently wither; but if it bear fruit, it shall be blessed and grow up like a tree planted nigh to the streams of waters.
The fruits of prayer are these: — To reform manners, to withdraw us from sins, be they never so light, to avoid the occasions of them, and of all imperfection; — to subdue passions, to curb the senses, to mortify sinister inclinations, to vanquish the repugnances and difficulties that I find in virtues; — to fight valiantly against temptations, to animate myself to suffer much affliction with alacrity; — to encourage myself to fulfil ​readily the will of God declared in His holy law, in the Evangelical counsels, and in the rules and orders of my state and office; — to procure also the augmentation or increase of virtues, imitating those of Christ Jesus our Lord, especially His charity and humility, His obedience and patience in afflictions, His love of the cross and of contempt, and of chastising the flesh. And particularly every one is to seek that virtue that he has most need of according to the quality of his state, whether it be modesty, or chastity, or fortitude, or any other of the theologial or moral virtues, with a most effectual resolution and purpose, as shall be explained in the twenty-ninth meditation of the first part. And when I shall make an examination of prayer I must make good trial whether I have drawn out any of these fruits in the manner aforesaid.
Chap. IX. On the several forms op praying on different matters, accommodated to different persons and times.
The taste of man is so easily disgusted in spiritual exercises, that it soon begets tediousness and loathing, if his food be given him dressed always after one fashion, though it be never so precious; as the Israelites were cloyed with manna
though it was exceeding sweet, because it was always the same. For this cause the saints and spiritual masters have invented different forms of prayer, accommodating it in different manners, with this variety, to take away the weariness we might have in the exercise of it, when the Spirit of God goes not always renewing the delight of it, making us (as David says) always to " sing" " to the Lord a new canticle."
In this the seraphical doctor St Bonaventure was very excellent, in his many and large treatises that he made of ​these matters; and no less was our glorious father Ignatius, couching in his little book not only variety of matter for meditation, but also several forms of praying for the examination of the conscience, for the application of the interior senses of the soul, and for divers similitudes and parables; and especially he taught three very profitable forms of prayer, accommodated to those who walk in the three ways above mentioned — purgative — illuminative — and unitive, — although they are all three of great profit for them all.
1. The first form of praying is upon the commandments of God — upon the seven capital sins, commonly called the seven deadly sins — upon the three faculties of the soul — and upon the five senses, taking all this for matter of meditation and prayer. This form is proper to those that walk in the purgative way, labouring to cleanse themselves of their sins. And so we will declare this form in the first part, making special meditations of all these things, with the rest that belong to the manner of praying, examination of conscience, and preparing oneself for confession and communion, whereby is purchased purity of soul.
2. The second form of praying is upon words; by taking for matter of meditation some psalm of David, or some sermon or sentence of our Saviour Christ, or some prayer or hymn of the Church, ruminating every word by itself, and drawing forth the spirit and affection that is in them. For as the words of Holy Scripture were dictated by the Holy Spirit, so they have all some mystery worthy of consideration. And as the Church is governed by the same Holy Spirit, so it speaks not a word, but it contains much spirit.
The form of meditating these is, to consider who speaks that word, to whom it is spoken or directed; — to what ends, with what manner and spirit it was spoken; — and what is its signification; — that is to say, what it is that it commands ​or counsels, threatens or promises, or what it is that is required or intended therein, drawing out of all affections agreeing with what has been formerly considered.
For in another way are those words to be meditated which God speaks to man than those which man speaks to God: — The first, as a man that hears God, who is his Master, Lawgiver, Counsellor, Protector and Rewarder; hearing Him with desire to learn what He teaches, to execute what He commands, to follow what He counsels, to fear what He threatens, to hope for what He promises, and to love Him for what He says: — The second are to be ruminated with that spirit with which He that ordained them spake them, and according to the end to which they are directed, which is manifestly seen in the psalms of David; for some he made with the spirit of praising God, and thanking him for the benefits which he had done to his soul and to his people; — some with a spirit of contrition, to ask Him pardon of his sins; — and others with a spirit of affliction, joined with great confidence to implore His aid in tribulations. And therefore to ruminate them, or to say them with profit, we must clothe ourselves (as Cassian directs) with the same spirit with which they were spoken, as if we ourselves had made them to the same end.
And even experience teaches us that he that feels himself cheerful for the benefits received from God recites with devotion the psalms of joy, as are, " Benedic anima mea, Domino; et omnia quae intra me sunt, nomini sancto ejus," etc.; " Bless the Lord, O my soul; and let all that is within me bless His holy name." " Laudate Dominum de coelis," etc.; " Praise ye the Lord from the heavens." And at such time he finds not so much relish in the psalm of " Miserere mei Deus;" " Have mercy on me, O God!" And, on the other hand, he that is afflicted with his sins says with devo​tion the psalm of " Miserere mei," " Have mercy on me," and applies not himself then to the psalms of joy. This we are to consider that we may choose for matter of meditation those words and prayers which accord with that spirit which we feel, and with the end that we aim at.
This second form of prayer is most proper to those that walk in the illuminative way, pursuing the knowledge and understanding of the truths of faith so to increase in spirit; and of this we will explain the practice in the second and third part, meditating in this way upon the salutation of the angel, upon the canticle of the Virgin, upon the prayer of the " Our Father," and upon certain sentences and prayers of our Lord Christ, upon whose words we will always meditate with more attention, because, as the Spouse said, " His lips are as lilies dropping choice myrrh," that is, they teach most excellent virtue, the first and most surpassing of all other; and (as St. Peter said) His words are " the words of eternal life;" and our Lord Himself says that His " words are spirit and life." And therefore whosoever meditates them as is fitting shall draw forth abundance of spirit and most pure life of grace, by which he may be worthy of life everlasting.
3. The third form of prayer is by way of aspirations and affections, which answer to the respirations of the body, taking care that, between respiration and respiration, there may breathe out from the inward part of our soul some holy affection, or some groaning of the spirit, or some short prayer of those which we call ejaculatory, spending the whole time, that is, between one respiration and another, in the pondering or understanding and spiritual taste of what we desire or ask, or of the thing for which we groan and sigh to God. This form is most accommodated to those that walk in the unitive way, aspiring and thirsting ​for actual union with Almighty God; and with this desire they labour to pray with the greatest continuance and frequency that they can: for prayer is as necessary for the perfect spiritual life of the soul as respiration is for the life of the body, according to that of David which says, "I opened my mouth and panted, because I longed for Thy commandments." And in testimony of this, as often as they open their mouth to breathe, so often would they pray. And now, seeing this is not possible through our imbecility, they take at certain times some space for this exercise, frequenting in this way the ejaculatory prayers, of which we will presently speak, casting them up to heaven like darts or arrows which are shot from the heart as from a bow with vehement affection and love.
Chap. X. On contemplation, and on the manner how some may use mental prayer without variety of discourse.
By what hitherto has been said the ordinary forms that are to be used in mental prayer are explained, which are accommodated to all sorts of persons that desire to treat with Almighty God, though all proceed not after one manner. For some in their prayer have more discourse and less affection; others, on the other hand, content themselves with little discourse, and busy themselves most in affections. Others, again, have need of no more but a single sight of the truth, and with that they are moved to all the acts of devotion that have been rehearsed; and these enjoy that which we call contemplation; which (as St Thomas says) is a single view of the eternal truth, without variety of reasoning, penetrating it with the light of heaven, with great affections of admiration and love,
to which ordinarily no man arrives but by much exercise ​of meditation and discourse. In the same manner as a woman, when she intends to marry a man, spends many days in askiDg and certifying herself what he is, inquiring of his lineage, wealth, condition, health, affability, discretion, virtue, and other parts, reasoning and thinking much upon them; and, finding him to be to her liking, is content to love him and take him for her husband; but afterwards, when she has known him and taken him for her husband, she needs make no new discourses, but with only seeing him, or remembering him, or hearing his name, she loves him, and desires to give him content and to be always with him. The like happens with a scholar that would make choice of some new master; or with a servant that intends to take a new lord; or with one friend that desires to make a new and strict league of friendship with another.
2. Even in like manner beginners in virtue and in the exercise of prayer had need to spend much time in meditations and reasonings, inquiring what and who God is, who Christ our Saviour is, what be His perfections, virtues, and His marvellous works; moving themselves with these considerations to love Him, and to take Him for their Master, for their Lord, for their friend and spouse of their souls. But after they are much exercised and practised in this, it happens oftentimes that a single view or remembrance of God, without new discourses, is enough to inflame them in His love and in the other affections aforesaid. There are even some that with only hearing the name of Jesus or Father, or but hearing the name of mortal sin, hell, or heaven, penetrate in a moment what is comprehended in them with great affections of love or sorrow. True it is, that as our understanding lays not much hold on things that it perceives not with the senses, it easily loses the estimation of spiritual and divine things and forgets them, and so has need often to renew those meditations and reasonings which ​it made at the first; for otherwise it will find itself much distracted and dry, unless it be a time when our Lord by special favour will without them give light and knowledge enough to enkindle the affection of love, by communicating the grace of contemplation.
3. By what has been said I infer, for the comfort of some persons that are desirous to use mental prayer, and yet for want of health or some other cause dare not reason nor dive to the bottom of that which is inclosed within the mysteries of our faith, that they despair not of the principle contained in this sovereign exercise; for to such God uses to grant, under the title of their necessity or infirmity, what He gives unto others under the title of many services and large meditations wherein they have been exercised. For as He is so liberal and easily contented, He asks of no man more than what, according to his portion, he can give Him, supplying that which is wanting with His divine illustrations.
Such persons, therefore, as doubt their capacity for the intellectual part of meditation, ought to be admonished that the end of all the meditations and discourses that shall be put in the six parts of this book is to attain to three notions or sorts of knowledge: — One of himself, and of his innumerable necessities and miseries of body and soul; the other of Christ Jesus our Lord, true God and man, and of His excellent virtues, especially those which were resplendent in His nativity, passion, and death; and the third of Almighty God Three and One, and of His infinite perfection and benefits, as well natural as supernatural, that proceed from Him.
These three sorts of knowledge go linked one with another, entering and issuing from one to another; ascending from man himself, and from Christ to God, and descending from God to Christ and to himself. And from them (says St. Thomas) ​springs that devotion which comprehends three sorts of affections corresponding to them in the will.
4. Some affections concern himself; confounding himself for his sins and want of zeal, being exceedingly sorrowful for them, purposing amendment, and humbling himself for that instead of fruit he has brought forth nothing but sin. Others concern Christ our Lord; compassionating His afflictions, rejoicing in His virtues, desiring in them to imitate Him, and asking His grace to that end. Others concern God our Lord, admiring His greatness, praising Him for it, giving Him thanks for the benefits He has done us, and offering ourselves very sincerely to serve Him in return for them, mingling with this petitions of celestial graces and gifts for himself, and for the whole Church, and for his neighbours, particularising those things of which he has greatest necessity.
5. This presupposed, any person whatsoever desirous to use mental prayer, however weak he be, may put himself in the presence of the living God, whom he has near him and within him; and renewing the knowledge which he has by faith of the three things aforesaid, may quietly exercise the affections corresponding to them, sometimes confessing to God all his miseries one by one, with affections of grief and humiliation, and desiring remedy of them — sometimes calling to memory the virtues resplendent in some mystery of Christ our Lord, His humility, obedience and patience, with affections and desires to imitate them — at other times recounting the benefits he has received of God, with affections of thanksgiving; or remembering the infinite perfections of God, His bounty, mercy and providence, with affections of prayer and joy. And these affections by God's favour will be drawn forth without any difficulty; for the mysteries and verities of our faith are like flint-stones, which, in touch​ing them with the steel of any single consideration, cast out sparkles of love, which if the soul, like tincfer, be well disposed to receive, they presently raise up flames of great feeling and affection. To do this with more facility, it will help much to have first read some one of the meditations which ensue, labouring always to re-collect in the memory some of the most notable truths of our faith, which may be as it were the repast of these feelings, saying with the Bride, " A bundle of myrrh is my Beloved to me, He shall abide between my breasts;" giving us to understand that she Had recollected many truths of those mysteries which belong to her Beloved, which she set before her, regarding them simply with the eyes of the Spirit, and embracing them with the enkindled affections of the heart, and applying them to herself with effectual purposes of imitation.
6. Of these we are to take sometimes one and sometimes another for the foundation of mental prayer, as did our Saviour Christ, re-collecting Himself to pray in the garden of Gethsemane, who took three times for the theme and foundation of His prayer these brief words: " My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou." And in the weight and sense of these words He spent a long time, as in its place we shall see hereafter.
Chap. XI. On the extraordinary forms op mental prayer, and the divers manners god communicates Himself in it.
1. By those things that have been said concerning prayer, it manifestly appears, as St. Augustine says, that it is the gift of the Holy Spirit, promised by God our Lord to His Church, when He said, " I will pour down upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem," "spiritum ​gratiae, et precum," "the spirit of grace and of prayer,"
without which spirit none pray rightly. For, as St. Paul says, " We are" not " sufficient to think anything" holy " of ourselves, as of ourselves," nor do " we know" " what we should pray for, as we ought," if the Spirit of God does not teach us and move us to it. For this He has divers ways, guiding some one way and some another, so that it would be an intolerable error to imagine that all are to go by the same way that I am guided; for the Spirit of God " est unicus et multiplex," is " one" only and " manifold;" one only in the substance and principal end which it aims at, and manifold in the means and ways it takes to obtain it.
2. These ways, in general, are two: one ordinary, which comprehends all the forms of prayer that hitherto we have treated of; the other extraordinary, which comprehends other forms of prayer more supernatural and special, which we call prayer of quiet or silence, with suspension, extacy, or rapture, and with imaginary figures of truths which are discovered, or with only an intellectual light of them, together with revelations and interior speeches, and with other innumerable means that Almighty God has to communicate himself to souls, of which no certain rule can be given, because they have no other rule but the teaching and direction of the Sovereign Master, who teaches it to whom He will and how He will. For such sorts of prayer are not to be desired nor attempted by ourselves upon pain of being proud and presumptuous, and in that case unworthy of them — nay, rather on our part we are to refuse them with humility, because of the danger we may incur of being deluded by Satan, transfigured into an angel of light. But when God shall communicate them, they are to be received with humi​lity and thanksgiving, and with great wariness and prudence, following certain directions which we shall give in this book, especially in the third part, in meditating the miracle in which Christ was held for a phantasm; and in the fifth part, in meditating the apparitions and revelations that Christ our Lord made to His apostles and disciples; in which we will describe the signs and effects that are wrought in the soul by the visitation of God and the coming of the Holy Spirit, and to what height of life He exalts men by the means of His seven gifts and celestial inspirations, which is the thing we all ought to desire and pursue.
3. But that we may have some light of these extraordinary and marvellous means that God has to cheer souls, and to communicate Himself to them in mental prayer, I will point at some of them; in which also are touched certain things that pass ordinarily in all, and it is good to know them, for they will help to understand an ordinary form of prayer by application of the senses, of which we are hereafter to treat.
4. For explanation of which I premise, that as the body has its five exterior senses with which it perceives the visible and delectable things of this life, and takes experience of them, so the spirit, with its faculties of understanding and will, has five interior acts proportionable to these senses, which we call seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching spiritually, with which it perceives the invisible and delectable things of Almighty God, and takes experience of them; from which springs the experimental knowledge of God,
which incomparably exceeds all the knowledge that proceeds of our reasonings, as the sweetness of honey is much better known by tasting a little of it than by using much reasoning to know it. And so by these experiences mystical theology is obtained, which is the savoury wisdom and science of ​God, in such way that St. Dionysius says of divine Hierotheus that he had knowledge of divine things, not only by the doctrine of the Apostles, nor only by his industry and discourse, but by affection and experience of them, which is obtained by means of the five interior senses, of which the said Scripture makes much mention, and the holy fathers, especially St Augustine, Gregory, Bernard, and others, whose sayings St. Bonaventure copiously allegesin his treating of the seven ways to eternity, in the sixth way; from whom I will borrow somewhat of that which I am about to state, presupposing that (as the glorious St Bernard says), " In hujusmodi non capit intelligentia, nisi quantum experientia attingit;" " In many of these things the understanding attains no more than that which experience perceives." And therefore I will go on also pointing as it were to that which belongs to all.
i. First, God our Lord communicates Himself sometimes by a spiritual presence with His illuminations, communicating to the understanding a manner of light so elevated that by it, like another Moses, it beholds and regards the invisible as if it were visible. And although it retains the virtue of faith, yet it retains it so illustrated and perfected concerning the mysteries thereof, that it appears another light This sight is used to go accompanied with a kind of spiritual alacrity, which is called joy, leaping as it were with pleasure and joy for the strangeness of the divine greatness that it has seen, according to that which is written in Job, "He shall pray to God, and He will be gracious to him, and he shall see His face with joy."
To this manner of contemplation or interior beholding our Lord Himself invites us, saying, " Be still, and see that ​I am God which is to say, Cease from sins, and disengage yourselves from earthly business, and attend carefully to the consideration of my works, and you shall come to see with great light that I only am God, glorious among the nations and exalted over the whole earth. Somewhat of this our Lord communicates very ordinarily to His servants by certain sudden illustrations, which, like lightnings, discover to them some verity of our holy faith, after a manner very different from what they perceived before,
which, although they pass suddenly, yet leave the heart very much inflamed with manifold affections of the love of God or sorrow for sins, according as the verity requires which with that light they have contemplated
With these same illuminations our Lord God also touches sinners to convert them, discovering to them on a sudden the greatness of their sins, the danger of their damnation, and other like truths to move and allure them to change their lives; which we shall speak largely of in the fifth part, in the 29th meditation of the conversion of St Paul.
ii. The second manner of our Lord's communicating Himself to us is by a spiritual hearing, speaking within our soul by His inspirations certain interior lively and effectual words, and sometimes even as distinct as those which are heard with our bodily ears; with which He teaches some truth, or discovers His will with such efficacy as to work its fulfilment. And sometimes (as the Spouse says of herself) the soul is mollified, waxes tender, and melts in the love of Almighty God. And he who had his heart sad, dismayed, frozen and hardened touching spiritual matters, with one of these interior words in a moment becomes joyful, confident, enkindled and softened for whatsoever God will do with it.
​And although these interior speakings are used to come after such extraordinary manner that it is only known to Him that hears them, yet after another ordinary manner they pass through all, and are called inspirations; for (as the glorious Doctor St Augustine says) " The interior speaking of God our Lord is a secret inspiration, by the which invisibly He discovers to the soul His will or His truth" With this He speaks to just and to sinners; but oftenest to those that are very spiritual, whom He teaches, corrects, reprehends or exhorts, comforts and moves to works of virtue and perfection. And therefore David, as one well experienced in feeling these inspirations and divine impulses, said, " I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me;" desiring that He would speak to him, and showing himself prepared to comply with whatsoever He should say.
These two manners of prayer or contemplation by spiritual seeing and hearing holy Job touched when he said to God, " With the hearing of the ear I have heard Thee, but now my eye seeth Thee;" in which he gives to understand, (as St Gregory 20 notes,) that it is a more noble manner of knowing God by an interior beholding than by the hearing; for the hearing has more obscurity in the darkness of faith, and the sight more perspicuity, beholding God more near, and as it were more present; at other times in the Scripture supreme contemplation is declared by means of hearing, as we shall hereafter see in the introduction of the third part
iii. The third manner of God's communicating Himself interiorly is by spiritual smelling, infusing into the soul an odour and fragrance of spiritual things so sweet that it comforts the heart and revives it to aim at and seek them, running (as it is said in the Book of Canticles) "after" Him "to ​the odour of" His sweetest " ointments." And the glorious Evangelist St. John, as one well experienced in this inward conversation with Almighty God, was wont to say, "Odor tuus, Domine, excitavit in nobis concupiscentias eternas " Thy odour, O Lord, has raised in us eternal desires and affections." Odour he calls a very spiritual sensibility of eternal things which we see not and yet believe and hope to obtain, from which proceed fervent acts of hope, with enkindled desires to aspire after them, and great animosity and courage to use all possible means to obtain them with a great alacrity, which the Apostle St. Paul calls "rejoicing in hope." For as hounds by the scent follow the chase with great swiftness and pleasure, not staying till they come to the place where (if they can) they lay hold of it; — so souls that in prayer receive this scent and odour of the divinity of God our Lord and of His most sacred humanity, of His charity and bounty and His other virtues, run with great fervour and diligence in the pursuit of those eternal things which they have scented, not staying till they possess them in such manner as they may in this life, with hope to possess them entirely in the other. Of which we have some token in such persons as God calls to a religious life, and gives them any sense and odour of the sweetness, security, and sanctity that they shall find in it, for which they tread under foot a thousand difficulties, and rest not till they obtain what they desire. And for this very cause, (says St. Paul,) that the just " are the good odour of Christ" our Lord; because their notable examples comfort and move us to follow them and to imitate Christ, from whom they principally proceed.
iv. The fourth manner of God our Lord's communicating himself is by a spiritual taste, communicating to the soul such fervour and sweetness in spiritual things that those of ​the flesh seem unsavoury to him. And (as David says) " My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God" and in all His works; and by the experience of this sweetness and of the marvellous effects of it come to know the greatness of God, the excellence of His law, of His virtues and celestial rewards. Upon which David said, "Taste, and see that the Lord is sweet;" that is to say, if you taste what God is and the works that He does within you, by this taste you shall know how sweet He is, how good, how wise, how potent, how liberal and how merciful. And after the same manner may we say, Taste and see how sweet is His yoke and His law, how sweet His obedience and humility, patience, temperance, chastity and charity. For every virtue has its proper sweetness, upon which the same David said, "How great is the multitude of thy sweetness, O Lord, which thou hast hidden for them that fear Thee!" He calls it great and manifold, to signify that as in meat there is variety of savours, so God has in His mysteries and virtues much variety and greatness of consolations. For if manna, being but one meat, had the savour of all meats to cherish the just with its corporal sweetness, with how much more eminence has God the sweetness of all things for the consolation of those that converse with Him by the means of prayer? For to some He gives it meditating His perfections;—to some, meditating His benefits;— and to others, meditating His holy law, which David said was sweeter unto him "than honey and the honeycomb." But this sweetness is hidden for those that fear God and reverence Him, for they only taste it with most abundance, but having once tasted it, they have (says Cassian) no tongue to declare it, for it far surpasses all whatsoever our sense attains to.
​True it is that God gives part of this to beginners, and even to sinners to wean them from the milk of their earthly consolations; but much more abundantly He gives it to those who for His love have mortified themselves in depriving themselves of them.
v. The fifth manner of God's communicating Himself is by a spiritual touching; touching with his loving inspirations the recesses of the heart, and our Lord joining Himself to the soul with such gentleness and affection, as cannot be expressed but by those similitudes of which the Book of Canticles makes mention; which I omit, lest our grossness should be dazzled with so much tenderness; but yet all rest in this saying of the Apostle St. Paul, that " he that is joined to the Lord is" become " one spirit" with Him; for God interiorly embraces him with the arms of charity, and cherishes him, giving him inward testimonies of His presence, of the love that He bears him, and of the care that He has of him, with great tokens of peace and very familiar friendship. And whosoever perceives himself so favoured, embraces within him God Himself, with the arms of love, saying that of the Bride, "I held Him," and "I will not let Him go." And here are exercised those tender colloquies, those petitions with groanings unspeakable, and those acts called anagogical, high elevated in matter of spirit, which our Lord grants of His singular grace to whom He pleases; but these are not to be ambitioned, but received when they shall be given, as already has been said.
5. These are the extraordinary manners of our Lord's communicating Himself by the interior senses of the soul. It belongs to our account only, by God's grace to mortify very well the five corporal senses, that God may open to ​us the spiritual; for, as St. Gregory says, if the exterior sense be shut, forthwith the interior sense is open. And contrariwise, as St. Augustine says, the interior sense sleeps, if the exterior be given over to its pleasures.
6. Besides this, we may use another means more easy to apply the interior senses of our soul upon the mysteries of our holy faith; the practice of which will be seen in the second part, in the 26th meditation; with which let us so dispose ourselves that our Lord, if it be His good pleasure, may communicate to us that part which shall be convenient for us of what has been said.
Chap. XII. On the ordinary and extraordinary time that is to be employed in mental prayer, and of ejaculatory prayers,
1. The time that is to be spent in mental prayer is of two sorts: the one ordinary for every day so long as life and health shall endure; the other extraordinary, re-collecting ourselves at certain times for the space of a week or two, or more, spending them all in these meditations and exercises, which may be done for divers ends and upon divers occasions.
i. First, when one is heavy laden with sins and desires to make a true confession and perfect conversion, it is an admirable means to withdraw one's self for some eight days or more to some retired place, spending all that time in thinking upon his sins and in meditations that may move to sorrow for them and to make a very perfect renovation and change of life.
ii. Secondly, when any one desires to learn this mystical science of the spirit to know how to pray mentally, how to converse with Almighty God, and to gain herein some use and experience, it is good to dedicate a month or two to this exercise, until he prove well versed. For although the ​principal master of this science is God Himself, yet it is also a help to have a visible tutor that may direct him, and to take time to learn and practise what he shall teach.
iii. The third occasion is, when one desires to take some state of life, and doubts which were fittest for him to choose for his salvation and perfection; — or when he desires to begin any great enterprise in the service of God, and stands in doubt of our Lord's will and pleasure therein;— or, being assured of it, he desires to enter with good footing, and to prepare himself with prayer, imploring God's favour to have good success therein; — in such cases, it is very convenient to take some time of retirement, as Christ our Lord, before He began to preach, retired Himself forty days into the desert.
iv. The fourth occasion is, when those that use this mental prayer perceive themselves cold, distracted, and dry in it, and, besides, find themselves very slack in matters of divine service. In these cases, the most effectual means to renew themselves and to re-enter into their former fervour is to dedicate eight days to these meditations, spending therein the greatest part of the day; and as this slackness ordinarily enters by little and little into all, it is good once every year to re-collect one's self some eight days to this end.
v. Finally, although a man find no slackness, yet it is good now and then to give himself an abundance and fulness of God, so to increase in His love and to excel the more in His service, as many saints were accustomed to do, who by this means attained to very high degrees of sanctity.
2. As for the ordinary time, there can no general rule be given for all; for this time must be measured by the health and ability, by the state and office, and by the necessary obligations and occupations of every man. But all this considered, the more time that may be employed in this exercise without being wanting to the things above mentioned, the ​better it is. Ordinarily, it were meet for a man to retire himself an hour in the morning or night, seeing that not without cause our Saviour Christ spent an hour in that retired prayer which He made in the garden of Gethsemane, as we may collect out of the reprehension He gave St. Peter, saying, " Could you not watch one hour with me? But he that by reason of his business cannot be an hour, let him be half an hour; and if he cannot be half an hour, yet let him employ, if he please, but a quarter of an hour in that mental prayer which we call examination of the conscience, in the manner that we shall hereafter prescribe; and let him allow himself some longer time for prayer upon holy-days, because they were instituted to attend to the service of Almighty God.
3. Concerning this ordinary time, we must be very considerate that after a man has set down his time that he intends to employ daily in prayer, whether it be in respect of the rule of his state (as some religionists do), or by special devotion, or direction of his ghostly father, he must be very constant in spending that whole time entirely in his holy exercise, without letting slip the space of one day, or losing even one " credo" of the hour allotted; for the devil, with great solicitude, invents a thousand devices, sometimes of corporal occasions, and sometimes of cares and business, under the pretext of piety, to make us interrupt our prayer; for omitting it one day through any sinister end, a man comes to omit it afterwards another and another day, and at length to omit it altogether. Whereupon St Chrysostom
says, that a just man should hold it for a thing more sorrowful than death itself to be deprived of prayer; imitating in this the holy prophet Daniel, who was accustomed to pray three times a day 4, and although the King of Persia commanded that no man upon pain of his life should pray ​to God for thirty days, yet he would not omit his accustomed prayer: "Ne tantillum quidem temporis sustinuit ab orando cessare." He did not so much as for the least time cease to pray to Almighty God; for he understood that his spiritual life depended upon prayer; and for fear of the death of the body he would not endanger the life of his soul; which (says St. Chrysostom) is as dead when it wants prayer as the body is dead when it is abandoned by the soul. And as Daniel, although by occasion of praying he put himself in danger of death (for he was cast into the lion's den), yet in effect he died not, for God delivered him from that danger, shutting the mouths of the lions because he opened his mouth to pray, so also we may believe that for accomplishing the task of our prayer we shall lose neither life, not health; nor content, nor the happy despatch of other business; nay rather, by the means of prayer we so dispose ourselves that Almighty God may take them to His charge, and perform with His omnipotence and wisdom what we ourselves are not able to do by reason of our imbecility and ignorance. And if at any time, out of real want of health or for other lawful or urgent cause, we shall be forced to interrupt our prayer, the impediment being past, we are forthwith to return to our exercise.; that the interruption which began through pure necessity be not continued by sloth and trepidity.
4. Lastly, that no man may exempt himself from this so high and sovereign an exercise, I add, that all in general, as well those who have a set time for retired prayer (if they will preserve their devotion) as also those that have not this time, to supply this defect ought to exercise themselves oftentimes every day in the brief acts of mental or vocal prayer which we call ejaculatory prayers, of which we have made mention in the ninth chapter, in which (as St. Augustine reports) the Fathers in the deserts exercised ​themselves very often every day, briefly putting themselves in mind of Almighty God and of His benefits or else of their own sins, and shooting forthwith like a dart a fervent affection up to heaven, or some brief petition for some virtue, saying as it might be thus: — " O Lord, that I had never offended Thee! O my God, that I may love Thee I Oh! that I may obey Thee! Give me, O Lord, purity of soul, humility of heart and poverty of spirit! Pardon my sins, O my Redeemer, because they are exceedingly grievous! "
6. This manner of prayer being short is easy to all, and may be made with very great attention and zeal, as Cassian tells us. And for this cause they usually are very effectual to obtain of our Lord what we require; for (as St. Basil says) it is more available to pray a little and well with attention, than to pray much after another manner; for God is not overcome with the multiplicity of our prayers, but with the weight and fervour of them.
6. The brevity of these prayers is to be recompensed with their frequency, labouring by means thereof to fulfil in some sort that which our Saviour Christ said, " We ought always to pray, and not to faint." That is, not to fail either in the time assigned for prayer or in the fervour thereof, or in confidence, or, if possible, in the frequency thereof; multiplying these ejaculatory prayers, which (as David says) are "the remainders of" those holy thoughts that we had in the morning, making to ourselves a feast, and preserving our devotion all the day.
7. St Chrysostom says that at the least we ought every hour to offer to God one of these prayers: " Ut orandi cursus cursum diei sequet;" that the course of prayer may equally go with the course of the day, so that when the clock ​strikes the hour it may serve as an alarum to prayer. But those that are very fervent employ much more frequency, imitating the holy monks of Egypt, of whom Cassian says, that when they laboured, all that day they also prayed: "Preces et orationes per singula momenta miscentes;"
"Mingling with their handiworks prayers and affections every moment of the day and by this short method they arrived in a little time to much sanctity and attained to great merits. Nor is it to be wondered at that we should be very eager of this holy exercise; for as St. Bonaventure says) at all times and at all hours we may gain by prayer that which is of much more value than the whole world. And we see manifestly that so it is; for if a man should waste the whole day in framing interior acts of blasphemies, vengeance, hatred of God, and purposes of other great and enormous sins, in the end of the day he shall have merited most terrible torments; so, on the other hand, if he spend it in the interior acts of this mental prayer, multiplying good desires and determinations to please Almighty God, with petitions of virtues, in the end of the day he will find himself enriched with incredible gain of celestial gifts and of an everlasting reward; for God is no less liberal in rewarding than he is rigorous in chastising.
8. We will put many of these ejaculatory prayers in the meditations of this book, especially in the third part; considering some short prayers that were made to Christ our Lord by some leprous and blind men, by the woman of Canaan, the sisters of Lazarus, and other such like.
Chap. XIII. Certain directions concerning the meditations ensuing.
1. For the better use of the meditations ensuing I premise that there may be divers ends in the reading of them, as there were in the writing of them.
i. The first end is to employ some little time in that most noble and profitable exercise which we call spiritual reading, in which (as the holy Fathers say) God speaks to the heart the same that is in the book, illustrating the understanding with the light of the truths written in it, and in kindling the will with the fire of other like affections. And for this cause in some meditations I enlarge myself somewhat, mixing certain admonitions and rules of perfection concerning the vices or virtues of which I treat in them, that they who read them to this end may learn also this science of the spirit. But they must read them with attention and repose, ruminating and pondering what they read with inward feeling of it, so that with their reading they join some manner of meditation, first beseeching our Lord to illuminate them, and to speak to their hearts the words of that book, saying with Samuel, " Speak, Lord! for Thy servant heareth."
ii. The second principal end of reading these meditations is, to recollect matter of prayer and contemplation, retired and alone by oneself with our Lord. For (as St. Bernard says) 3 reading disposes and aids meditation, which, without it, or something equivalent, is wont to be straying, wandering and distracted. And in such cases they are only to read those points that serve them for meditation in their hour assigned. And because sometimes one point is large, ​comprehending some three or four considerations, whose number is noted in the margin; it will be good to divide such a point into many, and briefly to gather for the meditation two or three verities of those considerations, to ruminate them more at leisure. And if any one desire to have more copious matter of meditation he may make of two points one.
Yet it is to be noted that although we prescribe in them the practice of mental prayer, exercising affections, petitions, and colloquies, yet we tie no man to those words in which they are delivered; but he himself may invent them, as our Lord shall dictate the same to him, and the light of the verity which he considers, and his own feeling of devotion, which (as has been said) is the tongue of the soul, may suggest; and whosoever has it knows very well how to speak with Almighty God, and without it is as it were mute and dumb; and then it is good to make use of those colloquies here set down, making them as if they were his own.
iii. The third end of reading these meditations may be to practise them with others; for it belongs to spiritual masters and confessors to give and prescribe such points of meditation to their disciples and penitents, exercising them in this manner of prayer when they are capable thereof; but they are not to give all alike to all, but select those meditations, points, and considerations that are most accommodated to the state and capacity of him that receives them.
iv. And besides this, they may also help themselves with these for their own sermons or spiritual speeches, which are used to be made in common to such as live in religion or out of the same, with desire to obtain that perfection that is proper to their state.
​2. For all these ends I have endeavoured that the meditations should go confirmed and accompanied with places and sentences of Holy Scripture which were written for the same ends. So that here are declared, in a manner, all the four Evangelists: — the greater part of the Acts of the Apostles: — the beginning of Genesis, and many other places of the Old and New Testaments. And as many of them may have divers senses, I have endeavoured to make choice of the most received, according to the exposition of the saints, from whom I have collected these considerations; as also from that which other spiritual men have experienced to whom our Lord has communicated these tastes and feelings.
3. So that, by this means, such as are lovers of variety in these exercises of the spirit will find in this book divers meditations for the several times of Advent, Lent, Sundays, and principal feasts of the year, accommodating themselves in every time to the spirit, which in them the Church represents. And as many have a devotion for meditations distributed according to the seven days of the week, they will here also find variety of them.
i. Those which treat of purifying themselves from vices in the purgative way will find meditations of the seven deadly sins, — for every day its meditation; and they themselves may easily collect others of the seven principal things that are in this life, that is to say, meditation of sins, death, judgment particular and universal, hell, purgatory, and the glory of heaven. As also of the seven notorious sinners that our Saviour Christ converted, namely — St. Matthew, St. Mary Magdalen, the woman of Samaria, the woman found in adultery, Zaccheus, the good thief, and Saul, otherwise called Paul.
ii. Those who treat of gaining virtues in the illuminative way will find meditations on the seven petitions of the ​"Our Father," of the eight beatitudes, of the seven stations, in which is consummated the whole passion of Christ our Lord, of the seven words that He spake upon the cross; and they may easily make choice of seven parables, or seven of His most notable miracles, for the seven days of the week.
iii. Those who treat of union in the unitive life will find meditations of the seven divine attributes, in which principally this union is fed; — that is to say, bounty, charity, mercy, immensity, wisdom, omnipotence, and providence. And if they will meditate God's benefits they will find meditations of the works that Almighty God did the first six days of the world and his rest upon the seventh day; also of the seven rewards of glory which Christ our Lord declared in His sermon of the beatitudes, and those which He promised the seven bishops in the Apocalypse. And after this manner they will find various meditations of the most blessed sacrament and of our blessed Lady the Virgin, and for the fifteen mysteries of the rosary. All which they may easily seek in the tables of contents prefixed to each of the volumes.
4. Finally, every one part of the six parts which this book has, in which are divers meditations with different manners of praying and contemplating, is like a banquet of many and different meats, dressed after many and divers fashions, which are set upon the table, not that every one that is invited should eat of all, although he may make a trial of all, but that he should eat principally of that meat that gives him most relish, or which is most agreeable to his complexion or necessity, leaving the rest for others that shall find relish where he finds it not, because they have another complexion or necessity different from his. For it would be a great ignorance in this matter to seek to lead all after that form of praying that suits me, contemning those that ​use another way. And therefore, every one guiding himself partly by the counsel and directions of his spiritual master — partly by the experience of his own comfort and profit — must lay hold of those meditations and forms of prayer which arm him best to this end, although it is not amiss to " prove all for perhaps our Lord will open to me a way which I thought He had held very close shut
5. By what has been said I conclude, that those who desire daily to climb the mystical ladder of Jacob, which St. Augustine calls the " ladder of paradise," and St. Bernard, " the ladder of men who are religious the steps of which are, reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation — will find in this book matter and instruction fit for this ascent, relying principally upon God's grace, by whose favour we shall all be able to climb and arrive to that union with our Lord, who is at the top inviting us to mount up thereby; and to this end He sends His holy angels who ascend and descend for our good: they ascend to present to God our desires and petitions, and they descend with the good despatch of them, and always animate us to climb up every day with great perseverance, until we enter into the paradise of our God, where we may see Him and enjoy Him, world without end. Amen.
* ↑ 1 Joan ii. 27.
* ↑ Joan v. 39.
* ↑ Lib. i. c. 8.
* ↑ Matt. xiii. 32.
* ↑ Phil. iii. 20.
* ↑ Cant. ii. 3.
* ↑ Apoc. xxii. 2.
* ↑ Cant. ii. 5.
* ↑ S. P. Ignatio in 1 exercitio priraae hebdomadae. S. Tho. 2,2, q. hxxiii., art. 1, et q. clxxx., art; 1, 3 et 4, et 3, p. q. 31.
* ↑ Cap. vii. juxta Septuag. S. Jer. ibid.
* ↑ S. Tho. 2, 2, q. lxxxii., art. 3, et q. ckxx., ars. 7, ad 1, Lib. 3, de fide orthodoxa, c. 24.
* ↑ S. Th. 2, 2, q. lxxiii., art. 17.
* ↑ Psal. 1. 7.
* ↑ Psal. cxviii. 73.
* ↑ 4 Reg. xx. 3.
* ↑ Joan xvii. 4.
* ↑ Psal. xxiv. 11.
* ↑ Lib. de Verbis Domini, et Sermone v. 29.
* ↑ Philip, iv. 6. 1 Tim. ii. 1. S. Tho. 2, 2, q. lxxxiii., art. 17.
* ↑ Lib. de Spiritu et Anima, cap. 70, qui ei tribuitur.
* ↑ Eph. v. 19. Coloss. iii. 16. S. Th. Lectio 7 in Ephei. v.
* ↑ Ps. xxxii. 2.
* ↑ Isa. vi. 3.
* ↑ Apoc. v. 12.
* ↑ Dan. iii. 57.
* ↑ Ps. x. 1.
* ↑ Apoc. xix. 6.
* ↑ Ps.xxiv.16; xxxix. 38.
* ↑ Rom. x. 12.
* ↑ Rom. viii. 26.
* ↑ Serm. xlv., in Cactica.
* ↑ Coloss, iii. 16.
* ↑ Ps. xli. 12; and xlii. 5.
* ↑ Ps. lxi. 6.
* ↑ Luke xv. 21.
* ↑ Lib. ii. de orando Deo, ad finem.
* ↑ Ecclus. xviii. 23.
* ↑ S. Chrys. lib. i. de orando Deo. Homil. in Pa. if. Nilus c. 513, de oraiione; Climacus, Gradu. xxviii.
* ↑ Serm. xlv. in Cantica.
* ↑ 1 Peter i. 8.
* ↑ Phil. iv. 7.
* ↑ Is. lxxxiv. 9.
* ↑ Collst. ix., c. 1.
* ↑ Gradu. xxviii.
* ↑ S. Dionys. c. 3, de Eccles. Hier. cap. 3 et 6. S. P. Ignat. annotatio 10.
* ↑ James iv. 8. Ps. xxxiii. 6.
* ↑ 1 Cor. vi. 17.
* ↑ Tract. 5, super 1 Joan. S. Th. 2, 2, q. xxiv., art. 9.
* ↑ In Ps. xl.
* ↑ Psal. ciii. 18.
* ↑ Collat. x. cap. 13.
* ↑ Isaiah vi. 2.
* ↑ 2, 2, art. ix., ad. 3.
* ↑ Ecclus. xviii. 23.
* ↑ Matt. vi. 6. S. Hilar, can. v. in Matt. Arob. lib. vi. de Sacra, c. 3. Aug. cone. ii. in Psal. xxxiii.
* ↑ Ps. xviii. 15.
* ↑ Ps.cxli. 3.
* ↑ Orat. Manassse, " flecto genu cordis mei."
* ↑ Heb. v. 7.
* ↑ Prov. xviii. 17, juxta Septuag.
* ↑ Luc. xi.l.
* ↑ Rom. viii. 26.
* ↑ C. 3. de divinis nominibus.
* ↑ Job xvii. 11, 12.
* ↑ Ps. xxxix. 13.
* ↑ Matt. vi. 21.
* ↑ Matt. xiv. 25. Marc. vi. 48.
* ↑ Luc. xiv. 11.
* ↑ Gen. xv. 11. S. Gregor. lib. xvi. mor. c. 19.
* ↑ Ps. cxlvi. 2.
* ↑ Ps. xxxix. 13.
* ↑ Ps. cxlii. 6.
* ↑ Matt. viii. 25.
* ↑ Luc. xviii. 38.
* ↑ Collat. ix. c. 2, and Collat. xiii. c.13. Cap. 48, 49, 50.
* ↑ Luc. xviii. 1.
* ↑ Ps. cxviii. 115.
* ↑ Ps. xciv. 6.
* ↑ 2, 1, q. lxxxiii., art. 12.
* ↑ Ps. xv. 9.
* ↑ S. Aug. epis. 121, ad Probara. cap. 9.
* ↑ Processu. 7 religionis cap. 3.
* ↑ Matt. xxi. 19.
* ↑ Ps. i. 3.
* ↑ Num. xxi. 5.
* ↑ Psal. xcv. 1, and xcvii. 1.
* ↑ Collat. x. cap. 10.
* ↑ Cant. v. 13.
* ↑ Joan. vi. 69.
* ↑ Ibidem, 64.
* ↑ Ps. cxviii. 131.
* ↑ S. Tho. 2, 2, q. dxxx., art. 3.
* ↑ Joan. x.
* ↑ 2 2, q. lxxxii., art. 8.
* ↑ Cant. i. 12.
* ↑ Matt. xxvi. 39.
* ↑ Epis. 105, prope fin.
* ↑ Zach. xii. 10.
* ↑ 2 Cor. iii. 5.
* ↑ Rom. viii. 26.
* ↑ Sapient, vii. 22.
* ↑ S. Tho. 2, 2, q. cburiv., art. 1 ad 3 j ibid. S. Isidor; et art. 3, et q. civ.; art. 1 et 2, ad 1 et 2.
* ↑ Cassian, collat. xii. cap. 13.
* ↑ Gerson, 3 p. tract de mystica. Theologia, c. 2. S. Dionys de divinis nominibus.
* ↑ Aug. lib. x. confes., et lib. de spiritn et anima, c. 9.
* ↑ Bern. lib. de dign. et natura amoris divini, c. 6 et sequentibus.
* ↑ Serm. xxii. in Cant.
* ↑ Heb. xi. 27.
* ↑ Job xxxiii. 26.
* ↑ Ps. xlv. 11.
* ↑ Ps. lxxvi. 3, and xcvi. 4, 11.
* ↑ Cant. v. 6.
* ↑ lib. de triplici habitaculo.
* ↑ Ps. lxxxiv. 9.
* ↑ Job xlii. 5. 20 Lib. xxxv. moral, c. 4.
* ↑ Cant. i. 3.
* ↑ S.Bonaven. sup. distinct. 6.
* ↑ Rom. xii. 12.
* ↑ 2 Cor. ii. 15.
* ↑ Ps. lxxxiii. 3.
* ↑ ft. 9.
* ↑ Ps. xxx. 2.
* ↑ Sap. xvi. 20.
* ↑ Ps. xviii. 11, and cxviii. 103
* ↑ Collat. xii. c. 12.
* ↑ Osculetur me osculo oris sui. — Venter meus intremuit ad tactum ejus — Dextera ejus amplexabitur me.— Cant. i. 1, ii. 6, v. 4.
* ↑ 1 Cor. vi. 17.
* ↑ Cant. iii. 4.
* ↑ S. Bonaven. sup. distinct. 4>. Lib. iv. de spiritu et anima, c. 9.
* ↑ Matt. iv. 2.
* ↑ Matt, xxvi, 40.
* ↑ lib. i, de orando Deo.
* ↑ Epis. cxxi. ad probam. c. 10; S. Chrysost. horn. 79, ad pop.
* ↑ lib ii. de Instit. cap. 10, et col. ix. cap. 35.
* ↑ In const i. monast. c. 2.
* ↑ Luc xTiii. 1.
* ↑ Ps. lxxv. 11.
* ↑ Lib. i. deorando Deo ad finem.
* ↑ Lib. iii. c. 2. et lib. ii. c; 14:
* ↑ Opusc. de perfec. vite, c. 2:
* ↑ S. Aug. seT. 22, ad. frat. S. laid. lib. iii. de snmmo bono, c. 3. S. Bern, ser. 30, ad. sororem.
* ↑ 1 Reg. iii. 10. 3) In sea claustralinm.
* ↑ Cap. ii. S. Bern, serra. 45 in Cantic.
* ↑ 1 Thess. v. 21.
* ↑ Gen. xxviii. 12.
* ↑ In tomo 9.