Two Pieces of Advice Calculated to Aid Us Much in Making Our Meditation Well and Drawing Fruit Therefrom

O make meditation well and draw the due fruit from it, it will aid us much, in the first place, to understand, as the first principle upon which we proceed, that meditation is not an end, but a means taken towards our advancement and perfection. Thus we ought not to stop at meditation as at a terminus and final end; our perfection consists not in the enjoyment of great consolation and great sweetness of contemplation, but in attaining to a perfect mortification and victory over ourselves and our passions and appetites, bringing them back, so far as is possible, to that blessed state of original justice in which we were created, when flesh and appetite were altogether subject and conformable to reason, and reason to God; the meditation we make should be a means to arrive at this.

As the iron in the forge becomes soft with fire, so that they can work it, bend it, do what they will with it, so it should be in meditation. If we find mortification and the breaking of our own will very hard and difficult, we must have recourse to the forge of meditation and there, with the heat and fire of devotion and the example of Christ, soften our heart that we may be able to work it and mold it to all that is necessary for the greater service of God. This is the function of meditation, and this the fruit that we ought to gather therefrom; and therefore the sweetnesses and consolations which the Lord is wont to give therein are not for us to rest in them, but to make us run more readily and nimbly in the way of virtue and perfection.

This the Holy Ghost would give us to understand by what happened to Moses, descending from the mountain where he had conversed with God. The sacred text says that, coming from thence, his face was resplendent with the rays of light, and this light took the shape of horns, in which the strength of animals is wont to dwell; showing us that we ought to gather from prayer strength and vigor for well-doing. Christ our Redeemer taught us the same thing by His example, on the night before His Passion putting Himself in prayer once, twice, and thrice, to prepare Himself for the suffering that was now so near; not that He had need of it, as St. Ambrose observes, but to give us an example. The holy Gospel (Luke xxii. 43) says that there appeared to Him there an angel comforting Him, and He came forth from His prayer so comforted that He said to His disciples: Arise, let us go to meet our enemies, for now he draws nigh who is to give me up (Matt. xxvi. 46). And He Himself offers and gives Himself up into their hands: He was offered, because himself willed it (Isaias liii. 7). All this to teach us that we ought to take prayer as a remedy to overcome the difficulties that meet us on the way of virtue.

St. Chrysostom says that prayer is an attuning of the lyre of our heart to make sweet music to God. Thus we go to meditation to tune our heart, to bring to harmony the chords of our passions and affections and all our actions, that all may accord with reason and with God. This is what every day we say or hear said in spiritual conferences and exhortations, that our meditation should be a practical meditation, that is to say, directed to action, since it has to serve to smooth down the difficulties and overcome the repugnances that present themselves in the way of spirit. Therefore the Holy Ghost calls it prudence: The science of the saints is prudence (Prov. ix. 10) ; because prudence is directed to action, differing from the science of the learned, which is only to know. Thus the saints say that prayer is a general and most efficacious remedy for all our temptations and for all sorts of necessities and occasions that may come in our way; and one of the principal praises of prayer is this.

Theodoret, in his Religious History, tells of a holy monk who was wont to say that physicians ordinarily treat each corporal disease with a particular and proper remedy, and frequently apply many remedies to the cure of one disease, because all remedies fall short and have only a limited virtue in them; but prayer is a universal remedy and is very efficacious in all our necessities, to repel and resist the attacks of the devil and to gain all sorts of virtues, because it applies to the soul an infinite good, which is God Himself, on Whom it rests for support. They also call prayer omnipotent; prayer alone, they say, can do all things. And Christ our Redeemer gives us this remedy of prayer against all temptations: Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation (Matt. xxvi. 41).

The second advice is that, before we put ourselves in meditation, we should have fixed beforehand the points upon which we are to meditate, as also the fruit we are to gather therefrom. But some may say: “How shall we know heforehand what fruit to draw from the meditation we are about to make? Please tell us that?” Certainly I will. Have I not just now said that, when we have recourse to meditation, it is to find out a remedy for our spiritual infirmities and to gain the victory over ourselves and over our passions and bad habits; and that meditation is a means whereby we help ourselves for the amendment and reformation of our lives? This being so, we must consider for some time before we begin our meditation and ask ourselves, what is the greatest spiritual necessity I have? What is it that most hinders my progress in virtue and makes most war on my soul? This is what I must bring ready thought of, and hold before my eyes to insist on it, and draw from meditation a remedy for it. Let us take an example. I feel in myself a great inclination to be held in honor and esteem and to have much notice taken of me;

and that considerations of what men will think about me take a great hold of me; and when occasion offers of my being made small account of, I am troubled and feel it much, and haply sometimes I show it. This, I think, it is that makes most war upon me, hinders my advancement and the peace and tranquillity of my soul, and makes me fall into my greatest faults. This, then, being your greatest need, your cure consists in overcoming and rooting this tendency out, and that is what you should bring ready prepared and keep before your eyes and take it to heart, to gather this good from your meditation.

Thus it is a mistake to make a practice of going to meditation to take what luck you find and pick up there anything that offers, like a sportsman who fires at random to hit where he may hit and let come of it what will come —leaving what is most necessary. The sick man who goes to the dispensary does not take the first drug that comes to hand, but what he needs for his ailment. Here is a man full of pride even to the depth of his heart; another of impatience, another of self-opinionatedness and self-will, as is clearly seen whenever occasion offers—in fact he is taken red-handed in the fault every day—and the fellow goes to meditation to pick flowers and quips and conceits, laying hold of the first that comes and is most to his taste, picking now this and now that. That is not the way to get on. One should always take account of one’s greatest need and contrive something to meet that, since it is for that that one goes to meditation.

St. Ephrem alleges to this purpose the example of the blind man in the Gospel, who approached Christ with loud cries that He should have mercy on him. Christ asked him what it was that he would have Him do for him. He at once represented his greatest necessity and that which gave him most trouble, which was his loss of sight, and asked for a remedy for that. Lord, that I may see (Luke xviii. 41). Do you think that he asked for any other of those things of which in good sooth he stood in need? Do you think he said: “Lord, give me a garment, because I am poor?” He does not ask for that, but, leaving all the rest aside, he comes to his greatest necessity. So then, says the saint, we should do in prayer; we should come to our greatest necessity, and insist and persevere in that until we get what we want. That there may be no excuse or demur in this matter, it is well to observe that, though in truth, when one goes to meditation, one should aim at gathering from thence desires of the particular virtues that are wanting to him, and ordinarily take care that the points and matter taken for meditation be suitable and proportionate thereto—to the end that the will may be moved more readily and with greater firmness and fervor to those desires, and so gather more easily the desired fruit—yet it is also needful for us to understand that any exercise or mystery that we meditate may be applied to that necessary purpose. Prayer is like the manna from heaven, in which everyone found the flavor that he desired: if you desire the flavor of humility, the consideration of your sins and of the death and Passion of Christ and of the benefits you have received from God, will yield that flavor; if you desire grief and shame for your sins, any of those subjects will yield that flavor; if you desire patience, you will find that flavor also, and so of the rest.