Of Other Good Things and Advantages That There Are in Meditation

/)\putees good thing and great advantage, says St. Thomas, that there is in meditation, is that from it there springs true devotion, a thing so important in spiritual life and so desired by all who journey that way. Devotion is nothing else than a promptitude and readiness of will for all that is good; and thus the truly devout man is he who is prompt and disposed for all good: such is the common doctrine of the saints. Now St. Thomas says there are two causes of this devotion, the one extrinsic and principal, which is God; the other intrinsic on our part, which is meditation; for this promptness and readiness of the will for the things of virtue arises from the consideration and meditation of the understanding, the understanding being that which, after the grace of God, starts and kindles this fire in our heart. Thus true devotion and fervor of spirit does not consist in the sensible sweetness and relish which some experience in prayer, but in keeping a will prompt and disposed for all points of the service of God. This is the devotion that lasts and endures; that other soon comes to an end, consisting as it does of affections of sensible devotion, coming of a sudden desire of something attractive and lovable, and being often the result of natural constitution, a soft and affectionate character and an impressionable heart. Such a one is quickly moved to sentiment and tears; and when this devotion is run out, the good purposes often dry up also. This is a sentimental love, founded on tastes and consolations; while the taste and consolation lasts, this person will be very diligent and punctual, a lover of silence and recollection; and when the wind ceases, all is over. But take those that are founded on truth by means of meditation and consideration, convinced and disabused by reason—these are they that persevere and hold out in virtue; and even when sweetness and consolations fail them, they are still the same as before, because the cause endures, that is, the reason that convinced and moved them. This is a strong and manly love, and in it, not in sweetnesses and consolations, are seen the true servants of God and they who have made real progress. It is often said that our passions are like little dogs that go on barking, and in time of consolation have their mouths stopped: God throws to each of them his morsel of bread, which keeps them quiet, and they ask nothing; but when this bread of consolation is gone, this and that and the other one start barking, and there you see what each man is good for. They likewise compare these tastes and consolations to articles of personal property that are soon worn out, and solid virtue to landed property that is lasting and permanent, and therefore more valuable.

Hence arises a thing that we often experience, and which is worthy of consideration. We see some persons on the one hand who have great consolations in prayer, and afterwards in occasions of temptation we see them weak and even falling; and on the other hand we see others who suffer great aridities in prayer and know not what consolation or sensible sweetness is, and yet we see them very strong under temptation and far from falling. The cause is that which we have been saying, that the one were founded on tastes and feelings, while the others are founded on reason, and so remain free from illusions, convinced and firm set in truth, and thereby continue and persevere in what once they have been persuaded of and resolved upon. And so one of the methods that are usually prescribed, and a very good one, to persevere in the good resolutions made in prayer and put them in execution, is to try to keep in mind the motive that then caused in us that good resolution and desire, because what then moved us to desire it will afterwards help us to keep and carry it out. And there is even more in it, and it is this—that by going about to undeceive and convince oneself in this way, even if one afterwards forgets the motive and reason that formerly moved him, nevertheless in virtue of that reaction against error and the resolution then taken under conviction of truth and of reason, the man stands firm and strong enough afterwards to resist temptation and persevere in virtue.

Gerson set such store by meditation that, being asked what exercise was most useful and profitable for a religious recollected in his cell, reading, or vocal prayer, or manual labor, or application to meditation, he said that, saving obedience, the best would be application to meditation. And he gives this reason, that though in vocal prayer and spiritual reading one may possibly feel for the time greater devotion and profit than in meditation, yet leaving off the book you were reading before, or in ceasing your vocal exercise, your devotion also is apt to come to anend. But meditation improves a man and disposes him better for what is to come and therefore he says that we must accustom ourselves to meditation, so that though books fail, meditation may be our book, and thus true devotion may not fail.