Chapter VII: The Remote Preparation for Prayer

THE GREAT interest of man's life is then, as we have been striving to show, his advancement to the highest degree of the spiritual life. We think it, therefore, useful to examine in detail the most sure means of reaching that height; not that we can create in ourselves that which only the Holy Spirit can give, but that we may prepare His way and strive to establish in our souls those dispositions which He ordinarily requires as conditions for attaining divine union.

For this purpose, we shall read with profit what the ancient fathers thought of perfection, and what means they considered best for its attainment: "The whole scope of the monastic life," says Cassian, "its highest perfection, consists in a constant and uninterrupted perseverance in prayer, and in preserving, so far as human frailty will permit, peace of soul and purity of heart. To attain this most precious good all the efforts of our body and all the aspirations of our mind should be directed; and there are between these two things, namely, prayer and perfection, close and necessary relations. The whole edifice of the virtues is only raised to attain the perfection of prayer, and if it is not crowned with prayer, which unites and binds all the parts together, it will neither be solid nor lasting. Without the virtues, it is impossible to acquire this peaceful and continual prayer, and without this prayer, the virtues, which are its foundation, will not reach their perfection."¹

Prayer is then the secret sanctuary in which God unites Himself to our souls; but prayer must be prepared for by purity of life, according to the advice of the wise man: "Before prayer prepare thy soul, and be not as a man that tempteth God."² This condition can surprise no one. We cannot deceive the eye of God, who searches the heart and the reins; we can keep nothing secret from Him, "But all things are naked and open to His eyes to whom our speech is."³ The hour of prayer is that in which the soul, being more attentive to God, is also more fit to respond to His action; but during prayer she meets her habitual imperfections, and the effects of her many external distractions. Each of these is an obstacle to her intercourse with God. Our Lord frequently awaits these moments of intimacy to punish or to reward our external acts according as they have deserved. St. Benedict well knew all these secrets of the spiritual life when, seeking to form in his monks the spirit of prayer, he gave them the counsel: "To observe every hour the actions of his life."⁴

In this the holy patriarch summed up the teaching of the ancients, as we find it in Cassian: "We must build up this edifice of all the virtues, and preserve our minds from all kinds of distractions, that they may become, little by little, accustomed to the contemplation of God and divine things. Whatever occupies the mind before prayer will necessarily present itself to our thoughts in the time of prayer. We must, therefore, put ourselves beforehand into those dispositions which we wish to have during prayer. The impressions of words and acts that have gone before will recur again whilst we are in the midst of our spiritual exercises; these recollections will make sport of us, and cause us to be angry or melancholy, if we were so before. The desires and thoughts that engaged our minds will also return, and to our confusion, will make us fall back into distraction or even foolishly laugh at a ridiculous word or action.”⁵ We recognize in these practical lessons three instruments of good works mentioned in the Rule of St. Benedict, “Not to love much talking; not to speak vain words or such as move to laughter; not to love much and dissolute laughter.”⁶

We must then, if we would develop within us the spiritual life and obtain the gift of prayer, not only know our faults and combat them, but moreover banish vain preoccupations, repress the turmoil of our many idle thoughts, and all that savours of levity and instability of mind; we must mortify curiosity—that is the desire of knowing, seeing and hearing—all which things distract the soul by pouring it out upon external things, and causing it to lose all relish for what is spiritual. The admirable law of silence established in religious orders is intended for no other purpose than to force the soul to recollection, and to withdraw it little by little from the life of the senses. But we can easily understand that this law of external silence would profit little if the soul did not labour to rule the imagination; the peril would be all the greater for being less visible. The ancient fathers had far less experience of the wanderings of the imagination, but nowadays they must be taken into serious account.

Education in our times is rarely strong and manly. Children are allowed to grow up in ignorance and moral idleness; hence their piety is too often nothing but mere sentiment—a sort of misty and vague dreaminess—which is death to the spirit of prayer. Besides this many Christians, after devoting themselves with zeal to good works, are taken up with childish and frivolous amusements. Why then should they be astonished that they are not at once set free from these useless dreams when they come to prayer, and that they cannot without pain and effort apply their minds to the mysteries of our holy faith? How can they expect that a recollected spirit will fall upon them unawares?

The imagination is closely linked with the senses, and if it is not mastered and curbed we can never hope to have that pure prayer of which Cassian speaks: "The soul raises itself in prayer according to the degree of its purity. The more it withdraws from the sight of material and terrestrial things, the more is it purified and sees Jesus Christ interiorly, either in the humiliations of His life, or in the majesty of His glory. . . . They alone can contemplate His divinity with a most pure eye, who turn away from base and earthly thoughts and works to ascend with Him the high mountain of solitude, where, free from the tumult of passions, and rid of all vices, they contemplate by the light of their faith and from the height of their virtue the glory and beauty of His countenance, which the pure of heart alone may see."⁷

Thus a soul which desires to advance in the spirit of prayer and to obtain union with God, should strive to banish vain and useless thoughts, and to apply herself, as far as she can, to walk in the presence of God. This again is the teaching of St. Benedict: "To know for certain," he says, "that God beholdeth him in everyplace."⁸ And this should be true of the recreation hours as well as of the silence of the cell, whilst reading and whilst doing our manual labour, which act the fathers considered a help to the spirit of prayer. "For," says Cassian, speaking of the Eastern monks, "it is difficult to say whether it is in order to meditate better that they occupy themselves unceasingly in manual work, or whether it is by this assiduity in labour that they acquire so much piety, knowledge and light."⁹

This again is the reason of our continuous occupations in the monastic life. They are a help to union with God; for manual labour, regulated by obedience, is like a firm and immovable anchor which steadies the levity of the mind, whilst leaving it free to soar up to God.

With regard to intellectual work, God forbid that it should ever become a distraction for the religious, and withdraw him from the divine presence! It is given to us not to satisfy curiosity or to flatter pride, but to consecrate our intellect as well as our heart entirely to God. We must seek only God in the books we read; and the study of His works, whatsoever they may be, must ever invite us to exclaim with the psalmist: "How great are Thy works, O Lord! Thou hast made all things in wisdom."¹⁰ Which of us would not be content to say with the Apostle: "For I judged not myself to know anything among you but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."¹¹

And indeed this is not a lessening of true science, but rather its greatest height and perfection. The ancient fathers desired to have this kind of supernatural science, and it is what St. Benedict wished to form in his children by what he calls "holy reading." Cassian also thus recommends it: "It is impossible for a soul that is not pure to attain the gift of spiritual science. Employ therefore every care that your study may not become to you, instead of the means by which you may acquire the light of spiritual science and the glory which is promised to those that obtain it, the instrument of eternal perdition through the vanity and presumption which it would create in you.”¹²

Who has not been struck by the words of Ecclesiastes? After draining the cup of profane knowledge, he owns, sadly, in the end: “He that addeth knowledge, addeth also labour.”¹³ “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is an affliction of the flesh.”¹⁴

But though intellectual intemperance is dangerous, it is useful and even necessary to cultivate the mind by study, “Willingly to hear holy reading.”¹⁵ “We must read unremittingly,” says Cassian, “and commit the holy Scriptures to memory. This continual meditation will produce a double fruit. First of all, when our minds are occupied with these holy readings, they will necessarily be freed from all bad thoughts, and secondly, if whilst labouring to learn the Scriptures off by heart, we do not always understand them, later on, when disengaged from exterior things we meditate upon them in the silence of the night, we shall penetrate into them more deeply, and discover hidden meanings that we had not been able to grasp during the day, and that God reveals sometimes even during sleep.

“When this study has renewed our heart, the holy Scripture will appear to us under quite a new aspect, and its beauty will go on increasing in proportion as we make progress; for the holy Scripture is understood by each one according to his dispositions. It seems earthly to the carnal, and divine to the spiritual; so that they who at first only saw it enveloped in profound obscurity cannot afterwards sufficiently admire its splendour, nor bear, undazzled, its great light.”¹⁶

St. Paul teaches the same truth to the Corinthians: “Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are given us from God. Which things also we speak, not in the learned words of human wisdom, but in the doctrine of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the sensual man perceiveth not these things that they are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined.”¹⁷

Therefore everything in the spiritual life ought to lead the soul to occupy herself with the realities of faith, that being nourished with this divine element her life may by little and little become heavenly. But this is not all; and we fully agree with the ancient fathers who said: “He who prays only when he is upon his knees prays very little; but he who, while on his knees, allows his mind to wander prays not at all.”¹⁸ This brings us to speak of a practice universally recommended by the masters of the spiritual life, namely, “ejaculatory prayer.” The Fathers attached great importance to these frequent, short aspirations towards God as being well suited to form the spirit of prayer. Cassian, in his “Institutions,” says: “They think that it is better to make short prayers and to repeat them more frequently. By multiplying these prayers we unite ourselves more intimately to God, and by making them short we better escape the darts which the devil hurls against us, particularly at that time.”¹⁹ And again: “We should make short prayers, but frequent, lest, if they are long, the enemy should have time to cast distractions into our heart.”²⁰ Hence, according to the teaching of these holy men, short prayer is more easily kept pure because it is free from distraction, and these rapid darts from the heart are very efficacious for promoting union with God, and they are far preferable to a prolonged and dreamy prayer.

The Psalms, which are the form and type of all prayer, give us numberless examples of these short and expressive aspirations. The verse, “O God, come to my assistance—Deus in adjutorium meum intende was very familiar to the ancient Fathers, and, later on, was St. Catharine of Sienna’s favourite prayer, as “Misericordias Domini in æternum cantabo—The mercies of the Lord I will sing for ever,” was St. Teresa’s. But there is no need to lay out any plan for ourselves; we must follow with docility the whisperings of the Holy Spirit and the leanings of our own souls.

Thus the soul is not only able to preserve a sense of the divine presence during the whole day, but to entertain herself sweetly with God—either in heart only, or with heart and mouth—and this without any manual or mental work being able to distract her from Him. The soul which is faithful to this practice of ejaculatory prayer may believe that she is coming nigh to the semper orare of the Gospel. She will find therein a great help for silencing the passions, repressing too great activity about external things, and overcoming spiritual idleness. In this way she will accustom herself to live in intimacy with God, as St. Jerome taught the holy virgin

Eustochium: "Always keep within thy chamber, always rejoice with thy Spouse within. When thou prayest, thou dost speak to the Spouse; when thou readest, He speaks to thee."²¹ We find the same in another form in the legend of St. Hugh, Abbot of Cluny: "If he was silent, he was always with the Lord; if he spoke, it was always in the Lord or of the Lord."²² The supernatural life grows in this way hour by hour, so to say, and increases to the perfection of charity, which is holiness.

Nevertheless such is the frailty of human nature that these efforts to form within ourselves the spirit of prayer would be quite insufficient, were the soul not to reserve some moments each day for self-examination as to her dispositions and her faults. If it is pernicious to be constantly occupied with self and to turn all mental prayer into examination of conscience, it is equally pernicious, especially in the case of beginners and of thoughtless people who have not yet mastered their evil tendencies, never to observe what goes on within them in order to judge and correct their faults. This negligence may greatly impede the soul's progress. "I have thought on my ways," says the Prophet, "and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies."²³

Self-examination is an ancient practice, based upon sound reason. The holy king Ezechias made use of it. "I will recount to Thee all my years," he says, "in the bitterness of my soul."²⁴ It is not, however, any whatsoever examination of conscience. It is made before God, in the light of the graces received from His goodness, as on the threshold of eternity; it produces a complete surrender of ourselves into our Father's hands, and fills the soul with humble confidence, making her cry out: "O Lord, if man's life be such, and the life of my spirit be in such things as these, Thou shalt correct me, and make me to live."²⁵

When the soul judges herself before God without excuse, without exaggeration, and places herself in her Saviour's hands, this act alone causes her to find grace and pity. Covered with her sins, the soul appears before Him like that poor woman whom the Pharisees brought before our Saviour and accused. In her shame she could say nothing to defend herself. "Woman, where are they that accuse thee? Hath no man condemned thee? Who said: No man, Lord. And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more."²⁶ Does it not seem that the sovereign Holiness was disarmed before this sinner, who by her silence judges herself?

It is of the utmost importance, therefore, for the sanctification of the soul, that at least once a day she should examine herself, and see not only of what sins she has been guilty, but moreover what are her imperfections and secret tendencies.

This is a sure means of obtaining self-knowledge and of foiling the devil's artifices, for he has no better allies than our own inattention and thoughtlessness. It is the way to repair our daily losses by loving contrition, to obtain abundant graces, and finally to bring about the continual amendment of our life. St. Benedict could not overlook this important practice. He thus recommends it: "With tears and sighs daily to confess his past evils to God in prayer, and to amend those evils for the time to come.”²⁷ And the Psalmist renders the same thought in these words: “My soul is continually in my hands, and I have not forgotten Thy law.”²⁸ Scrupulous persons however should make this examination with the heart rather than with the head, otherwise it will not profit them. It should create confidence and a firm purpose of amendment, not fretfulness and discouragement. It should also be brief and limited to the appointed time. Some souls cannot turn to God without falling at once into self-examination. This is a disastrous tendency, which ruins the spirit of prayer and hinders all development of the spiritual life. In every case the examination should conclude with sincere sorrow and a firm, courageous and calm resolution to do better for the future.

Generally speaking the soul’s acts are stronger in proportion as they are prompt and energetic, leaving no time for dreaminess. The slowness of many people is but disguised idleness, vain subtlety, the very opposite of spiritual operations. We need resolution and confidence in God to advance; and if to analyse is a necessity for our slow reason, we must beware of pushing analysis and the discussion of ourselves to such an excess that they deprive the soul of all confidence in God, of all stability, leaving her a prey to perpetual and pusillanimous wavering.

Nevertheless, giddy, impressionable and inconstant persons should examine themselves with greater leisure and attention, giving a practical tone to their resolutions, otherwise their best impulses will vanish into thin air. It is not sufficient to have a general and vague good will to serve God and to sanctify our souls; we must make up our minds as to what we really will do, resolve upon it clearly, and follow it up strenuously to the very end, all which is impossible without serious self-examination.

Examination of conscience, thus understood, will be the best preparation for the Sacrament of Penance. When practised daily, it will dispense the soul who is preparing for Confession from those interminable searchings which some persons make before their accusation, as though everything consisted in discovering their faults and mentioning every minute detail about them; whereas the conceiving of supernatural sorrow and the preparing to receive pardon have also to be taken into consideration. Happy they who, full of faith, of fervour, of regret and of good resolution, approach this Sacrament, thirsting to obtain that perfect charity which redeems the penalty while it effaces the guilt of sin. Such as these will speedily attain to that consummate purity which is the object of their desires, and union with God will soon become their habitual state.

This is the end to which holy Church is ever tending: to make up for the insufficiency of our expiation, and after inviting us to the frequent reception of the Sacraments, she still further opens with great liberality the treasury of her Indulgences. The reason of this is that she longs to see all things restored through Christ in our souls; and as long as there remains any obstacle between them and God, she suffers as from an irregular and constrained state. One would think that she was for ever repeating to herself: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God."²⁹ Her maternal heart will find no rest, no joy, till our souls, having become pure as crystal, will be apt to receive and to reflect the rays of the uncreated light.

And even then the most holy Bride of our Lord will not suffer her children ever to lay aside the spirit of penance which is necessary for them to the end of their pilgrimage here below. Each year she brings back her children, even the perfect among them, to the solemnity of the Lenten fast. Those in fact who have attained perfection are never fixed in the fulness of the good, the true and the beautiful while they are yet on earth; and it is to them that may be applied the admirable teaching of St. Denis regarding the heavenly Spirits: "Piety permits us to say that in the angelic hierarchies the less noble intelligences are purified by the light which God sends them concerning things till then hidden from their sight; that is to say, when He calls them to a more perfect knowledge of the divine secrets, and correcting the ignorance in which they are actually plunged, He causes them to rise, by means of the superior Spirits, to the glory of a more profound and luminous intuition."³⁰

Thus it is with the souls that God already satiates with His fulness. They have no longer to expiate their own faults; but as long as they are upon earth they can, by the labour of penance, be admitted to a higher possession of the divinity, and purify themselves evermore and more, in the sense that they pass to a more excellent good, following the counsel of the apostle: "Be zealous for the better gifts."³¹

Footnotes

1. Cassian, Coll., ix, cap. Ii. ↩

2. Ante orationem præpara animam tuam, et noli esse quasi homo qui tentat Deum (Eccli., xviii, 23). ↩

3. Omnia autem nuda et aperta sunt oculis ejus, ad quem nobis sermo (Heb., iv, 13). ↩

4. Actus vitæ suæ omni hora custodire (S. Reg., iv, 48). ↩

5. Cassian, Coll, ix, cap. iii. ↩

6. Multum loqui non amare; verba vana aut risui apta non loqui; risum multum aut excussum non amare (S.Reg. iv,53-55). ↩

7. Cassian, Coll., x, cap. vi. ↩

8. In omni loco Deum se respicere, pro certo scire (S Reg. iv, 49) ↩

9. Cassian, Instit. lib. ii, cap. xiv. ↩

10. Quam magnificata sunt opera tua, Domine! Omnia in sapientia fecisti (Ps., ciii, 24). ↩

11. Non enim judicavi me scire aliquid inter vos, nisi Jesum Christum, et hunc crucifixum (1 Cor., ii, 2). ↩

12. Cassian, Coll., xi v, cap. x. ↩

13. Qui addit scientiam addit et laborem (Eccli., i, 18). ↩

14. Faciendi plures libros nullus est finis; frequensque meditatio, carnis afflictio est (Eccles. xii, 12). ↩

15. Lectiones sanctas libenter audire (S. Reg. iv, 56). ↩

16. Cassian, Coll, xiv, cap. x, xi. ↩

17. Nos autem non spiritum hujus mundi accepimus, sed Spiritum qui ex Deo est, ut sciamus quæ a Deo donata sunt nobis; quæ et loquimur non in doctis humanæ sapientiæ verbis, sed in doctrina Spiritus, spiritualibus spiritualia comparantes. Animalis autem homo non percipit ea quæ sunt Spiritus Dei: stultitia enim est illi, et non potest intelligere: quia spiritualiter examinatur (I Cor, ii, 12-14). ↩

18. Cassian, Coll, x, cap. xiv. ↩

19. Cassian, Instit., lib. ii, cap. x. ↩

20. Cassian, Coll, ix, cap. xxxvi. ↩

21. Semper te cubiculi tui secreta custodiant, semper tecum Sponsus ludat intrinsecus. Oras, loqueris ad Sponsum; legis ille tibi loquitur (S. Hieron., Epist. ad Eust.). ↩

22. Silens quidem semper cum Domino; loquens autem semper in Domino, vel de Domino loquebatur? (Vita S. Hug., cap. i.) ↩

23. Cogitavi vias meas, et converti pedes meos in testimonia tua (Ps. cxviii, 59). ↩

24. Recogitabo tibi omnes annos meos in amaritudine animæ meæ (Isa. xxxviii, 15). ↩

25. Domine, si sic vivitur, et in talibus vita spiritus mei, corripies me, et vivicabis me (Isa., xxxviii, 16). ↩

26. Mulier, ubi sunt qui te accusabant? Nemo te condemnavit? Quæ dixit: Nemo Domine. Dixit autem Jesus: Nec ego te condemnabo; vade, et jam amplius noli peccare (Joann., viii, 10, 11). ↩

27. Mala sua præterita cum lacrymis vel gemitu quotidie in oratione Deo confiteri, et de ipsis malis de cætero emendare (S. Reg., iv, 58). ↩

28. Anima mea in manibus meis semper, et legem tuam non sum oblitus. (Ps., cxviii, 109). ↩

29. Beati mundo corde, quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt (Matth. v, 8). ↩

30. Hier. Eccl. cap. vi. ↩

31. Æmulamini charismata meliora (1 Cor. xii, 31). ↩