How It Is to Be Understood That in Meditation We Should Take to Heart One Thing, That of Which We Have Greatest Need, and Insist Thereon Until We Get It

We. do not mean by this to say that we should always have our mind fixed on one thing in meditation. Though humility, or something of that sort, be our greatest need, still we may well occupy ourselves at meditation in the acts and exercise of the other virtues. There strikes you an act of conformity to the will of God for whatever He shall wish and arrange to make of you: dwell on that as long as you can; it will be a very good prayer and time well spent, and will not blunt your lance for humility, but rather sharpen it. There strikes you an act.of gratitude and hearty recognition of all the benefits you have received from God, as well general as particular: dwell on that as long as you can: it is very reasonable every day to return God thanks for benefits received, and especially for that of our having been brought into religion. There strikes you a great horror and sorrow for your sins and a firm purpose to die a thousand deaths rather than offend God; dwell thereon, for it is one of the best and most profitable acts you could make in prayer. There strikes you a great love of God, a great zeal and desire for the salvation of souls, and of offering yourself to any labor whatever for their sake. Dwell thereon. We may also dwell on asking favors of God as well for ourselves as for our nearest and dearest, and for the whole Church, which is a part and a very principal part of prayer. On all these things and the like we may dwell at prayer, and it will be a very good prayer. Thus the Psalms, which are a very perfect prayer, we see are full of an infinity of different affections. Therefore Cassian said, and the Abbot Nilus, that prayer is a field full of flowers, or as a wreath woven of many various sweetsmelling herbs. The odor of my son is as the odor of a full field which the Lord hath blessed (Gen. xxvii. 27). There is another advantage in this variety, that it is apt to aid us and render our prayer the easier, so that we can stay and persevere in it the longer, since to be always repeating one and the same thing is apt to cause weariness, whereas variety delights and entertains.

What we mean to say is that it is very important for our Spiritual advancement to take for some time one thing, and that should be the thing that we feel most needful for our soul. On this we should principally dwell at meditation, asking it much of our Lord and stirring ourselves to acts upon it once and again, one day and another, one month and another, and this should be our principal concern, and this we should keep ever before our eyes and have it fixed in our heart. This is the way in which business is done here in this life. Hence the saying: “God keep me from the man of one business.”

The glorious St. Thomas, treating of prayer, says that desire is greater and more effectual, the more it is reduced to one thing; and he cites the saying of the prophet: One thing I have asked of the Lord, for this I will entreat and aim ever until I attain it (Psalm xxvi. 4). He who aims at knowing any science or art well, does not start learning one one day and another another, but he goes on for some time until he compasses it. So also he who aims at compassing any virtue does well to exercise himself for some time chiefly in that virtue, directing his meditation and all his spiritual duties to the gaining of it. This especially since, according to the doctrine of St. Thomas, all the virtues are connected together; that is to say, they are united and dovetailed into one another in such fashion that he who has one of them perfectly will have them all. Thus, if you gain true humility, you will gain therewith all the virtues. Uproot from all your heart pride and plant therein a most profound humility; if you have that, you will have great obedience and great patience; you will complain of nothing, any labor will seem to you little enough, all will seem to you very easy in comparison with what you deserve; you will have much charity for your brothers because you will hold them all to be good and yourself only wicked; you will have much simplicity and not judge anyone because you will have such a sense of your own defects as not to mind those of others, and so we might run through the rest of the virtues.

To this end it is a very good plan to apply the particular examen to the same point as meditation and make the two conjointly, for in this way all our exercises tending in one direction, much profit is made. Cassian goes further. Not only at time of examen and set meditation would he have us insist on that of which we stand in greatest need, but many times during the day we should lift up our spirit to God in ejaculatory prayers, with sighs and groans from the heart; and he would have us add penances besides, and mortifications and special devotions for this end, as we shall say elsewhere more at large. For if this be my greatest need, if this is the vice or passion or evil inclination that reigns most in me and makes me fall into most faults; if on the rooting out and vanquishing of this vice and gaining this virtue, then, depends the vanquishing and rooting out of all vices and the gaining of all virtues, whatever labor and diligence is spent on it will be well employed.

St. Chrysostom says that prayer is like a fountain in the midst of a garden or orchard, inasmuch as away from it everything is dry, and by it everything is green, fresh, and fair. All depends on using this fountain of prayer for watering; this it is that must ever keep all the plants of virtues in their bloom and beauty—obedience, patience, humility, mortification, silence, and recollection. But as in an orchard or garden there is wont to be some tree or floweret more dainty and cherished, to which the watering is chiefly applied, and though water run short for the rest it must never run short for this; so it should be in the garden and orchard of our soul—everything must be done to water and preserve it by the irrigation of prayer. You must always keep an eye on one main thing, which is that of which you stand in greatest need; to this you must chiefly apply yourself, for this you must never fail to find time. And as in going out of the garden you put your hand on the flower that pleases you most, cut it and go out of the garden with it, so in prayer you must lay your hand on what you find most necessary, and that you must take out of it.

This is a sufficient answer to the usual question, whether it is good to gather fruit at prayer in conformity with the exercise that makes the matter of meditation. We have said that, though one should always take account of what one finds most necessary, yet it is also good to exercise oneself and elicit affections and acts conformable to the mystery meditated. But here we must notice a very important point touching these acts and affections that we form at meditation bearing upon virtues that present themselves in accordance with the things meditated: they must not be done superficially, nor at a racing pace, but in very leisurely style, dwelling on them with long pauses and great restfulness, until we are satisfied and feel that that truth is fixed and sunk into our hearts, even though it take the whole hour to do so. One act and affection of this sort, kept up in this manner, is worth more than many acts of various virtues done and got through at top speed.

One of the reasons why some people make not so much profit out of prayer is that they go at a racing pace through acts of virtues; they go skipping and flying from one thing to another. Here comes a happy thought of an act of humility, and they make an act of humility, and forthwith pass on; there comes the thought of an act of obedience, and they make an act of obedience, forthwith another of patience; and so they go at a run like a cat over hot coals, so that, though there were fire under their feet, they would not burn. The consequence is that, when they come out of meditation, everything is forgotten and at an end and they remain as tepid and unmortified as before.

Father Master Avila reprehends those who, when they are on one subject and another occurs, at once leave that and pass to the other. He says that this is a usual artifice of the devil, to the end that, jumping from one branch to another like a magpie, they may lose the fruit of their meditation. It is very important that we should dwell on affections and desires of virtue until they soak in and find thorough entrance into our soul. Thus, if you wish to elicit acts of contrition and sorrow for your sins, you must dwell thereon until you feel in yourself a great horror and abhorrence of sin, according to the saying of the prophet: J have abhorred iniquity and abominated it (Psalm cxviii. 163). This will make you come forth with firm purposes to die a thousand deaths rather than commit one mortal sin.

Thus St. Augustine well observes that for the horror that men have of certain sins, as blasphemy or parricide, they do not fall into them except on rare occasions. Of other sins he says on the contrary that by practice they come to be made small account of; by custom men have lost by this time their fear and horror of them, and so they fall easily into them. In like manner, if you wish to elicit acts and exercise yourself in humility, you must dwell on that affection and desire of being despised and made little account of until this affection and desire comes to soak in and gain full entry into your soul, and all the fumes and spirits of pride and haughtiness fall away and come to an end, and you feel yourself moved to be despised and depreciated; and so of the rest of affections and acts of other virtues. Hence it will be seen what a help it will be to our advancement to take to heart one thing, and insist and persevere in that as we have said. If there be deep-seated in us the affection and desire of being despised and made small account of, or any other similar affections, and we hold to that an hour in the morning and another hour in the evening, and the same the day after that, and the day after, it is clear that quite another effect will be produced in our heart, and the virtue will remain stamped and soak down into our heart in quite another manner than if we had gone over it at a gallop.

St. Chrysostom says that, as one rainy day or one irrigation is not enough for the lands, however good they are, but many such rainy days and many waterings are needed, so also many irrigations of prayer are needed for our soul to be saturated and soaked through with virtue; and he quotes to this effect the saying of the prophet: Seven times in the day I praised thee (Psalm cxviii. 164). Seven times a day did the Prophet David water his soul with the water of prayer, and dwelt on one and the same aspiration, repeating it many times, as we see frequently in the Psalms. In one psalm alone he repeats twenty-seven times, For his mercy endureth forever (Psalm cxxv. 1-27), proclaiming and giving thanks for the mercy of God. In another psalm, which consists of only five verses, he eleven times rouses and invites us to praise God (Psalm cl). And Christ our Redeemer taught us also by His example this method of prayer and perseverance in one thing in His prayer in the Garden. Not content with having once made this prayer to His eternal Father, He went back upon it and repeated a second and a third time the same prayer, eundem sermonem dicens (Matt. xxvi. 44), and at the end, says the holy Gospel, at greater length than at the beginning. He dwelt more on this prayer, prolixius orabat (Luke xxii. 43), to teach us to insist and persevere in prayer on one thing, backwards and forwards again and again; for in this way and by this perseverance we shall come to attain the virtue and perfection which we desire.