Chapter V. Of certain necessary counsels for those who give themselves to prayer

One of the most difficult things in this life is to know how to go and converse with God familiarly. And this is a path none can walk in without a good guide, nor without, also, certain counsels, lest he should be lost in the way. It will, therefore, be necessary to prescribe, with our wontedbrevity, some such counsels. In these let the first be concerning the end, which we ought to have before us in these exercises. A\s to this we have to observe that (this intercourse with God being so sweet and heavenly, as saith the Wise man) from hence it arises that many persons, drawn by the force of this marvellous sweetness, which is beyond all that we can say, come to God, and give themselves up to these spiritual exercises, whether of reading or prayer or the use of the Sacraments, simply for the great delight they themselves find in them; so that the chief end in view which draws them to this is the desire they have to possess themselves of this marvellous sweetness.

This is a great and very common deceit into which many fall. For while the chief end of all our works should be the love of God, and the seeking after Him, this is the love of, and the seeking after, self; which means that our end then is our own pleasure and contentment, the end which the philosophers of the world had foremost in their contemplation.

“ And this,” says a learned Doctor, “is — a kind of avarice, lust, and spiritual gluttony, — which is not-less dangerous than the sensual.” Moreover, from this deceit there arises another as great, viz., that men judge of themselves and others by these inclinations and sentiments, believing that one is more or less perfect according as one has more or less pleasure in God ; which is a very great error. Then against these two deceits this counsel and universal rule may serve, viz., that everyone should understand that the end of all these exercises, and of all the spiritual life, is obedience to the commandments of God, and the fulfilment of the Divine will. For this it is necessary that our own will should die, that so the Divine will may live, and be supreme; seeing that these are contrary one to the other. And because so great -a victory as this cannot be gained without great favours and gifts of God, for this purpose we have specially to exercise ourselves in Prayer, that these favours may be attained, and these gifts perceived, so that we may rise heavenwards in our endeavour. In this way, and for this end, <- we may seek for, and find those delights in Prayer, as when David prayed, saying, ‘ Give me the comfort of Thy help again, and stablish me with Thy free Spirit,”

Tt is manifest, then, from this, that we should mark what i is the end we are to have in view in these exercises, and how far we should take count of and esteem what is profitable to ourselves and others :

because our judgment in this matter is not to be formed by the consolations we may have received from God, but by the sufferings we have been enabled to bear for His sake, both in doing His Will and in denying our own.

That these should be the end of all our readings and prayers, I would bring forward no further proof than that Divine Prayer or Psalm, “ Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way, and walk in the Law of the Lord.” In the one hundred and seventy-six verses of this Psalm, the longest in the Psalter, there is not found one which does not make mention of the Law of the Lord, and the keeping of His Commandments, which the Holy Spirit has been pleased to order, so that men may see from it how all their prayers and meditations should be so ordered for this end especially, viz., Obedience and the keeping of God’s Law. Any departure from this is but a subtle deceit of the enemy, with which he makes men believe — they are something when they are nothing. Therefore the saints say very truly that the real test of a man is not his delighting in Prayer, but his patience in tribulation, his abnegation of self, and his fulfilling the Divine Will; albeit that Prayer, and all those delights and consolations which Prayer gives, will be of the greatest help towards this.

Agreeably with this, let him who desires to know how far he has advanced in this Path Divine, consider how much he increases each day in humility, interior and exterior, and how he bears injuries from others ; how far he can tolerate the importunities of others ; how he helps his neigh- ‘bours in their needs ; how he feels for, and can bear with, the imperfections of others ; how far he can rest his hope on God in time of tribulation ; how he bridles ‘his tongue ; how he keeps watch over his heart ; how he can subdue the flesh in all its desires and feelings; how far he is able to possess himself in prosperity and in adversity ; how far he corrects himself of faults, and makes amends, and looks forward in all matters with gravity and discretion.

And above all this, let him think how far he is dead to the love of the honours and allurements of the world; and how far he has been successful, or has failed in these things, let him judge of himself by these facts, and not by the feelings he may have towards God, or about God. For this he should have one eye, and that his best, on mortification, and the other eye on Prayer; for this mortification itself cannot fully succeed without the help of Prayer. `

Second Counsel

And if we may not desire consolations and spiritual delights, simply to rest in them, but only for the benefits they bring, much less should we desire to have visions or revelations, or spiritual transports, or the like, which may be very perilous to those who are not well grounded in humility. And one need not fear to be disobedient to God in rejecting them, for when it pleases Him- to reveal anything, He knows how to reveal it in such a way that the more we shun things to be avoided, the more He will assure us, so that we cannot doubt even if we were so inclined.

Third Counsel

For the same cause we are well advised to be silent as to the favours and gifts and graces which our Lord may bestow, except it be to our Spiritual Director only. “ Therefore,” says S. Bernard, “the truly devout man should have written upon the walls of his chamber these words, ‘My secret to myself, my secret to myself. ”

Fourth Counsel

We should, moreover, take good heed that all our dealings with God should be with the. greatest possible humility and reverence, so that however much the soul -should be favoured with Divine gifts and graces, we should turn our eyes within, and see our vileness, and close our wings and humble ourselves before this so great Majesty of God, as S. Augustine was wont to do; of whom it is said in his life that he had learned to rejoice in the Presence of God with fear and trembling.

Fifth Counsel

We said above that the servant of God must endeavour to have his times for coming aside to be with God marked out. But besides this ordinary plan for each day, he should, at certain periods, set himself free from every kind of business, even from what may be a religious kind, to give himself up entirely to spiritual exercises, and give to his soul an abundant repast, with which to repair the failures and losses of each day, and to recover new forces for advance forwards. And although this may be done at other times, it should more especially be done at the principal Feasts of the year, and in times of tribulation and trouble, and after long journeys, and matters of business, which have caused much distraction, and wear and tear of heart, that we may turn and recover ourselves.

Sixth Counsel

There are also some who use but little time or discretion in their exercise, when things go spiritually well with them. To such as these their very prosperity becomes an occasion of danger. Fo: there are many to whom it seems as though grace did bestow itself upon them, in a measure beyond their capacity to use. These are they who, when they find intercourse with God so sweet, abandon themselves to it, and prolong their times of Prayer, and their vigil-fasts, and severities of discipline, that nature, unable to bear a burden so heavy and so continued, gives way and falls down under it. Hence it arises that many come to ruin, or injure their stomach and their heads, and so make themselves incapable, not only of other bodily works, but even of these very exercises of prayer and meditation as well.

It behoves us, therefore, to use much circumspection in these matters, especially in their beginnings, when our fervours and consolations are greatest, and our experience and discretion least, that we may so order our way of going, that we may not faint in the midst of it.

Another extreme, the opposite Bf this, is the case of those delicate ones, who, under colour of discretion, keep their bodies free from all labour ; which, very hurtful as it is in all kinds of persons, is much more so in beginners. S. Bernard says. it is impossible that one should persevere long in the religious life who is indiscreet while yet a novice ; or who affects an excess of prudence while yet but a beginner; or who, while young and fresh, begins to treat and pamper himself like an old man.

f these two extremes, it is not easy to judge which is the more dangerous: unless (as Thomas 4 Kempis well says) we think indiscretion to be the least curable ; because, while the body is yet sound, feels hope of there being a remedy ; but after it has been weakened through indiscretion it can with difficulty be cured.

Seventh Counsel

There is yet another danger in this path, and one possibly greater than any of the former dangers ; which is this, that when, on certain occasions, persons have experienced the inestimable value of Prayer, and have seen by experience how the whole ordering of the spiritual life depends. upon it, they seem to think that it alone is everything, that it alone suffices to put them in a state of salvation ; and so these come to be unmindful of other virtues, and to relax their endeavours in all else. From this it comes to pass that as all the other virtues have their part in the assistance they give to this-grace of prayer, it follows that, when the foundations give way, the edifice, too, falls. And so, while man seeks the more to promote this grace, he is the less able to make progress with it. The servant of God, then, must fix his eyes, not upon one virtue alone, however great it may be, but on all virtues. For as in the guitar one string creates no music, unless all sound, so one virtue alone cannot suffice to make this spiritual harmony, unless all the others correspond with it. And as a clock stops entirely if it gets out of order in some one point only, so, too, it happens in the clock of the spiritual life, if it should fail in ‘some one virtue only.

Eighth Counsel

It will be well, too, here to point out that all the things which, up till now, have been spoken of as aids to Devotion, should be taken as means of preparation, by which a man disposes himself towards Divine grace, paying diligent heed to the means, but placing his trust and confidence, not in them, but in God alone. I say this because there are some who make a kind of art of all these Rules and Counsels, seeming to think that, as one learning the duties of an office, by keeping strictly its rules, will quickly become a good ofhce-bearer, so, by virtue of these religious counsels strictly kept, that one may attain to all one can desire, without observing that this is to make grace into an art, and to attribute to human rules and plans that ee is only of the free gift and mercy of On this account, therefore, we should be careful to treat these practices not as a matter of art, but as a matter of grace ; because, by taking it in this way, a man will learn that the principal means required for this is a profound humility and consciousness of one’s own pitiful condition, together with the fullest trust in the Divine mercy. That we may attain to the knowledge of both these, let us pour forth continual tears and prayers, with which entering by the gate of humility, we may, through humility, attain to all that we can desire, and by humility keep it, and for it give thanks without any abatement of trust, either as to our mode of performing holy exercises, or as to anything else of our own.