Chapter XV. Prayer

The spiritual life is quite a cognizably distinct thing crom the worldly life; and the difference comes from prayer. When grace lovingly drives a man to give himself up to prayer, he gets into the power of prayer, and prayer makes a new man of him; and so completely does he find that his life is prayer, that at last he prays always. His life itself becomes one unbroken prayer. Unbroken, because it does not altogether nor so much reside in methods of mental or forms of vocal prayer; but it is an attitude of heart by which all his actions and sufferings become living prayers.

The life of prayer, therefore, which is the badge of the supernatural man, is the praying always. But what is it to pray always? What did our Lord mean by it? To pray always is always to feel the sweet urgency of prayer, and to hunger after it. Grace is palpably felt and touched in prayer; hence it strengthens our faith and inflames our love. The peculiar trial of hard work is that it keeps us so much from prayer, and takes away the flower of our strength before we have time for prayer, and physical strength is very needful for praying well. In consequence of this attraction we acquire habits of prayer by having set times for it, whether mental or vocal. Not that a mere habit of praying will make any one a man of prayer. But God will not send His fire, if we do not first lay the sacrifice in order. We must also practise ejaculatory prayer, and have certain fixed ejaculations, as well as make frequent spontaneous aspirations to heaven during the day, at will, and out of the fervid abundance of our hearts. Besides this, there is a certain gravitation of the mind to God in a prayerftu way, which comes from love and from the practice of tht» divine presence, and which ranges from intercession to thanksgiving, and from thanksgiving to praise, and from praise to petition, according as the moods of our mind change, and with hardly any trouble or any conscious process. To pray always is, furthermore, to renew frequently our acts of pure intention for the glory of God, and thus to animate with the life of prayer our actions, conversations, studies, and sufferings.

This is to pray always: and see what comes of it! Into what a supernatural state it throws a man! He lives in a different world from other men. Different dwellers are round about him, and are his familiars, God, Jesus, Mary, Angels, and Saints. They are the undercurrent of his mind, and often preside over the very expression of his thoughts. He has not the same interests, hopes, and aims as other men. When he wishes to do anything, he goes to work in a different way from others, and he tests his success differently. Indeed, in nothing is he so remote from men of the world as in his tests of success, which are wholly supernatural and full of the unearthly spirit of the Incarnation. His views of the world are strange, although they are definite and clear, because somehow he sees the world confusedly through the vision of the Church; and he judges of the relations and distances of things according as they group wound the central faith. His affections become shifted,

PRAYER. 24b bo that he is regarded even by those near him as an impassible man, and by those further off as a co.d heart that is destitute of natural affections and the keen sympathies of kindred. Moreover the temper of repose which prayer breeds is unfavourable to success and advancement in a worldly sense, because it is unfavourable to the eager desire and restless pursuit of them.

This influence of prayer comes out in a man's opinions and judgments of men, measures, and things. It is heard in his language. It is seen in his tranquillity. It is recognized in his dealings with others, and is the ruling principle of his occasional apparent want of sympathy with others. Such is a man whose faculties, affections, and in some degree even his senses, have been mastered by the spirit of prayer. We should expect it would win men by its gracefulness, like an angel's presence. But it is not so, because its beauty requires a spiritual discernment. To the eyes of the world such a man has all the strangeness and awkwardness of a foreigner, which in sober truth he is. Yet such a man is striking to others in after-thought, as the Blessed Sacrament so often is to Protestants, when they have come unawares into His presence and gone again. It is the way of God, and of the things of God, to be striking in after-thought.

The most serious business of the interior life is mental prayer, of which I will speak first. Spiritual writers, and even saints, have sometimes spoken as if meditation were almost necessary to salvation; and there are senses and cases in whieh this may be true. It is, however, quite certain that mental prayer is necessary to perfection, and that there can be nothing like a spiritual life without it. For mental prayer means the occupation of our faculties 21 * upon God; not in the way of thinking or speculating about Him, bit stirring up the will to conform itself to Him and the affections to love Him. The subjects ou which it is engaged are all the works of God, as well as His own perfections; but above all, the Sacred Humanity of our Blersed Lord. The length of time to be spent in it will vary with individual cases; and there are a variety of methods out of which a man may choose. But it is most important he should keep to his method when he has chosen it. Of this, however, something shall be said hereafter.

Mental prayer, in itself difficult, is rendered still more so by the temptations which beset it. It is irksome, quite beyond all explanation as well as expectation; and its irksomeness tempts us to abandon it. Very often when we try to meditate, a sheer inability to think at all comes over us in a most unaccountable manner. Whatever may be the bodily posture which we are recommended to assume at prayer, its sameness becomes wearisome; and if we keep changing, anything worthy of the name of prayer is out of the question. Distractions torment us at every turn, and their name is legion. Sensible devotion is our only hope, and it is continually being withdrawn, without apparent fault of ours. Temptations to intermit our meditation seem specious, when temptations to abandon it altogether would be rejected. At other times we are tempted to think its importance has been exaggerated. And if we dare disturb nothing else about it, we satisfy our restlessness by varying our times for it, and even for this slight concession we often pay dearly.

Now the remedy for all these temptations consists in «ur considering our meditation as the great feature of our day, in our spending all the time we can in spiritual reading, in being full, open, and obedient to our directoi in all questions concerning it, in weaning ourselves by degrees from sensible consolations, and in estimating at their proper value the fruits of a dry, or, as we often perversely call it, a bad meditation. We must throw our whole strength into this matter; for the practice of the presence of God, our strength against evil angels and evil habits, our habitual cheerfulness, our ability to carry crosses, and all that we can do ourselves towards final perseverance, depend on prayer.

If we attentively examine the various methods of prayer which approved writers have given us, we shall see that they may be resolved into two, the Ignatian and the jSulpician, if we may call them by those names. The advantages of the Ignatian method are, that it is more adapted to modern habits of mind, that it suits the greater number of persons, that it can be taught as an art, and that most meditation-books are framed upon it. The advantages of the Sulpician method are, that it is a more faithful transcript of the tradition of the old Fathers and the saints of the desert, that it supplies a want for those who on the one hand can make no way with the Ignatian method, and on the other have no aptitude for what is called Affective Prayer, and that it is in some respects more suitable for those who are often interrupted at meditation, inasmuch as it is a perfect work wherever it is broken off, whereas the power of the Ignatian method is in its conclusion. These are the characteristics of the two methods. No comparison can be instituted between them because both are holy, both have schooled saints, and the use of ihem is a matter either of choice or of vocation.

1 will speak briefly of both these methods, and first of the Ignatian, which is by far the most widely spread. Meditation is a gift for which we must make special prayer; and with this prayer we must join an ardent desire for perfection in general. We must make a diligent use of the means recommended, and we must regard spiritual reading as being to meditation what oil is to the lamp. There are, therefore, two preparations to meditation; one is remote, the other proximate. Remote preparation consists partly in removing obstacles, and partly in obtaining the aids requisite. The obstacles to be removed are, a good opinion of ourselves, and a want of concealment of our austerities and devotions, all affections to habitual infirmities, even though the infirmities themselves for the present remain habitual, dissipation of mind, negligent custody of the senses, and an off-hand way of performing our ordinary actions. The aids which we require are the lower degrees of humility, simplicity, and purity of intention in a general way, sufficient custody of the senses to insure tranquillity of mind, and a certain inconsiderable degree of mortification. Proximate preparation consists in reading, hearing, or getting ready our meditation over-night, and especially in noting what fruit naturally comes of it, or is most suited to our present spiritual needs; before we compose ourselves to sleep we are to think briefly over it, and make some suitable ejacula- ' tion) when we awake we are instantly to recall the subject of meditation; while we are dressing, to think of it or nourish sentiments akin to it, to quiet our minds by making an act of the presence of God or of the Sacred

HumaLitj for about the space of an Ave Maria, and this should be done before we kneel down; and to observe a strict silence from the time we have prepared our meditation till the next morning, so as to exclude dissipating thoughts and images. They who have submitted to the bondage of these regulations have found a blessing in them. Many minds cannot brook them. Without a knowledge of the. individual case, no one can see how far, or from what particulars, persons may without prejudice be dispensed. There are not many to whom the whole array of the Ignatian method is necessary for any long time, but there are many who can never make good meditations now, but who would have done so if they would have constrained themselves and borne the yoke for a little while at first. These two preparations are followed by an act of adoration and a preparatory prayer.

After the preparations come the preludes, of which there are always two, and sometimes three. The first prelude consists in sketching to ourselves a rapid picture of the subject of our meditation. This helps to keep off distractions, just as looking hard at a thing makes us think of it. If we are distracted during the course of our meditation, then we revert to our picture, just as we look back to anything we are copying when a noise has made us look up. Some writers tell us always to put ourselves into these pictures, and to take care that the pictures are congenial with the special fruit we look for in that meditation. The second prelude is a direct petition for that fruit, which it is well to ask through the saint whom the Church honours that day. In histories, there is a third prelude, which consists in very briefly going through the story. All the preludes together should not occupy above five miDutes.

The preludes are followed by the body of the meditation, which consists of three things, the use of the memory, the use of the understanding, and the use of the will The use of the memory seems much the same thing as the first prelude, but it differs from it in length, in accuracy, and in particularity. It consists, to put it as briefly as possible, in asking seven questions, Who? What? Where? With what means? Why? How? When? And this is applicable either to texts or mysteries. We need not take very long in this first part of the meditation, else it will pass off into a mere diversion of the imagination. Nevertheless, we must go through it very accurately, and with scrupulous exactness. For we shall find hereafter that the root of our affections and resolutions is here. A careless and perfunctory use of our memory will bring barrenness of reflections, dry formality in affections, and a want of compunction and nerve in resolutions. We must not be disturbed when we find memory trenching on the province of understanding. One is meant to glide off into the other; and there will be always left for the understanding the particular application of the general truth to ourselves and our present spiritual necessities.

For, by the understanding, which is the second part?f the meditation, we do these five things. We apply the subject of our meditation to ourselves, we draw conclusions, we weigh motives, we examine past and present conduct, and we anticipate future dispositions. The main thing in the use of our understanding is to be exceedingly simple. Like the use of the memory, it also consists in asking seven questions. First, What am I to think about thin? Secondly, What practical lesson am I to draw from it? And the lesson must be particular, not general, and it must be adapted to our employment, character, and condition. Thirdly, What motives persuade me to this practice? And they must be such as these, convenience, by which I mean fittingness, utility, at least on supernatural grounds, satisfaction, easiness, or necessity. Fourthly, JHow have I acted up to this hitherto? And here we must be disinclined to let conscience answer satisfactorily, and only give way to irresistible evidence when it is favourable. We must insist on our own confusion. We must descend to particulars, and we must jealously sift our present dispositions. Fifthly, How must I act for the future? Here we must put imaginary cases, not wild, unlikely, or farfetched, but such as may easily happen that same day. Sixthly, What impediments must I remove? Here we must use the self-knowledge which our daily examination of conscience gives us. On the whole our impediments are mostly three, conceit, sensuality and dissipation. Seventhly, What means am I to choose? Here we must be careful to be particular, not general and vague; and above all, we must be discreet, and not load ourselves with too much. Many are found in the evening without anj cross at all because the one they fastened on their shoulders in their morning meditation was heavier than they could bear; so they threw it down and were our Lord's disciples only half that day.

The third part of the meditation is the use of the will. Without this, meditation is not mental prayer, but either a speculation or an incomplete examination of conscience. The use of the will is twofold, the production of affections, and the production of resolutions* In reality affections may find their place all over the meditation, in the application of the memory, and even in the preludes

They can hardly ever be out of place wherever they come It is a good thing to have texts or sayings of the saints in our minds for the more ready expression of holy affections; but we must have collected them for ourselves, or they will not have half the unction. We should never break off an affection which has to do with humility, so long as there is any sweetness in it. The whole hour would be excellently spent in it, even to the neglect of the rest of the meditation. The same, however, cannot be said of joy and triumph, which are open to snares and delusions, and should be kept within bounds. Even compunction cannot have the reins given up to it, desirable as are its affections; for they tend to be immoderate and easily coalesce with self-love. If affections are slow in coming, we must not lose our peace of mind and begin to be restless, but quietly excite them by acts of faith.

But precious as are the affections of prayer, the resolutions are still more valuable. Their place should be not only in each point of our meditation, but at the close of each practical doctrine in each point. They must be practical, and must not consist in promising certain devotions and prayers, but in resolving to avoid this or to mortify that. They must be particular, and not general. They must have to do with our present state and with immediate action. To resolve to do so and so when you arrive at such a point, or when such a time comes, is castle-building, not resolving. If possible, our resolutions should have to do with the probable events of the very day, so that our particular examen may entwine itself with our meditation. They must be founded on solid motives, and have been often meditated, not rash, or off-hand, or above our courage when we cool down out of prayer. If anything, they should be below what we might reasonably hope to do, and very humble. For things seem easy in meditation, so that we do not distrust ourselves sufficiently; and God rarely strengthens an over-confident soul, and so we fail. How many of the downcast tales which people tell about their not advancing, should go to the account of reckless resolutions in the half-natural, half-supernatural heat of prayer!

We have now come to the conclusion of the meditation. This is important, and must be gone through calmly and fervently. If done in haste, so as to be within the hour, or for any other reason, it often spoils the whole meditation. We must first collect all our resolutions together, and renew them. This will often quicken with fervour the end of the hour that was perhaps flagging through dryness and languor. The colloquies with God, our Lady, or the Saints, follow next. In them we must be particular to ask for the special and predetermined fruit of the meditation; and with this we may couple any petition we have much at heart, and also a humble oblation of the resolutions we have made. A Pater, Ave, and the Anima Christi are next prescribed in most of the meditation books written on this system. We then leave off conversing directly with God; but we do not leave His presence. On the contrary, we are more than usually careful at that moment, lest the spirit of dissipation should come upon us, and there should be too sudden a reaction from the recollectedness of prayer.

If St. Ignatius could have his will, the meditation would not end here. He would have us sit down or walk about, and make what he calls the consideration of our meditation. The want of this he looks upon as the reason of continued bad meditations. If we reflected on them, aud found out they were bad at the time, we should probably find out what it was that made them bad, and so avoid it for the future. Indeed, of such importance is this consideration deemed, that we are recommended to make it later on in the day, if we have omitted it in the morning. The consideration is divided into two parts, the examen and the recapitulation. In the examen we briefly review our over-night preparation, our first thoughts on rising, our beginnings, preparatory prayer, preludes, choice of fruit, the progress of the meditation, how we dealt with distractions in all the three parts, whether our colloquies were fervent and humble, whether we have listened to hear if God would speak in our hearts, and whether we have been free from irreverence of body, or rashness of speech, or precipitation of mind. If all this has been done fairly well, we thank Almighty God for the grace in the strength of which alone we have been successful. If it has been done ill, we make an act of contrition and a modest resolution for the future, without giving way to sadness or disquietude. We must always bear in mind that the time of prayer is God's punishment time. It is then that venial sins, little infidelities, inordinate friendships, and worldly attachments, will rise up and complain of us, and we shall be chastised for them.

The recapitulation revolves the lessons we have learned, the resolutions we have made, and the fruit we hoped to obtain; and it implores once more the grace to keep our resolutions. "We are then to take an ejaculation for the day, or some thought which shall be a spiritual nosegay to refresh us in the dust and turmoil of the world. Finally we are to write down the lights we have received

A»id the resolutions we have made, so as to rekindle our fervour when it flags, by the perusal of them. This last practice, however, requires great discretion, and is not suitable for all. This consideration, St. Ignatius says, should occupy " about" a quarter of an hour.

The first perusal of the Ignatian plan is like a cleric's nrst look into a breviary. It seems as if we should never find our way about in it. But the processes are in reality so natural that they soon become easy to us, and follow each other in legitimate succession almost without effort or reflection. It is much more easy than it seems. The method of St. Francis of Sales is substantially the same, with some of the peculiarities of his own character thrown into it. The same may be said of the method of St. Alphonso, which is that of St. Ignatius with somewhat more freedom, such as we should expect from the character of that glorious saint, who, to his many other titles to the gratitude of the modern Church, might add that of the apostle of prayer. Beginners are always inclined to dispense themselves from the mechanical parts of the system. But it is well worth our while to be patient for a few weeks. We shall never be sorry for it, whereas we shall regret the contrary line of conduct as long as we live. We must beware also of kneeling vacantly and doing nothing, which adds the fault of irreverence to that of idleness. We must not look out for interior voices, or marked experiences, or decided impressions of the divine will upon our minds, nor give in to the temptation of leaving the plain road of pains-taking meditation in order to reach God by some shorter way. At first it is not well to read many books about prayer; but keep to the few oral advices of our director. We must always be trying, ret in a quiet way, to be shorter with our consideration* and longer with our affections; and if all our meditation should be unmanageably dry, we must make some particular resolution before we leave our Crucifix, and so the time will not have been without fruit.

One word on what we call bad meditations. They are generally the most fruitful. The mere persevering at our priedieu the full time is an excellent and meritorious act of obedience. The mystery, which seems to lay no hold of us, is in reality soaking into our minds, and keeping us throughout the day more in the presence of God than we otherwise should have been. We ask something of God, and that is in itself a great action. We make a resolution of some kind, and we meet with an occasion of humiliation. God often thus sends us back, as a master turns back a boy, to re-examine our course and to discover little forgotten infidelities for which we have never done penance. Whenever we have made a bad meditation, and cannot see that it is our own fault, we may be sure God means something by it, and it is our own business to find out what. It is no little thing to be able to endure ourselves and our own imperfections. On the contrary, it is a fine act of humility, and draws us on towards perfection. In good truth we may make our bad meditations pay us a usurious interest, if we choose.

It is obvious that much of what has been said of the Ignatian method is applicable to all methods, in the way of dhestion and guidance. In speaking of the Sulpician method, therefore, I shall confine myself to those things which distinguish it from the other. M. Olier divides prayer into three parts, the preparation, the body of the prayer, and the conclusion; and he generally uses the word prayer instead of meditation; and tilled with the spirit of the old tradition, he and his interpreters recur to S. Ambrose, St. John Climacus, S. Nilus, Cassian, and similar writers for rules and methods. They make three preparations, the more remote, the less remote, and the proximate. The first is occupied in removing obstacles, the second in preparing what is necessary for praying well, and the third is as it were the entrance into prayer. The more remote preparation may be said to extend over the whole of life, and is principally occupied with three obstacles: sin, the passions, and the thought of creatures. No soul in a state of sin can converse familiarly with God. The unquiet movements of human passions prevent inward peace which is a necessary condition of mental prayer; and the thought of creatures is the foundation of all dissipation and distraction. Thus the abandonment of sin, the mortification of the passions, and the custody of the senses, form the more remote preparation for prayer. The less remote preparation is concerned with three times, the time when the subject of prayer is given over-night, the time which elapses between then and the waking in the morning, and the third is from our waking to our beginning our prayer. The first requires attention; the second a review of the subject and a strict silence; and the third the affections of love and joy wherewith we should approach prayer. The proximate preparation is almost a part of the prayer itself. It comprises three acts: first, the putting of ourselves in the presence of God; secondly, acknowledging ourselves unworthy to appear in His presence; and thirdly, confessing ourselves incapable of praying as we ought without the aid of divine grace. For each of these three preparations very minute rules are 22* » given, which are all taken from ancient sources, partica larly St. Gregory, St. Chrysostom, St. Bonaventure, St Nilus, St. Bernard, and St. Benedict.

But it is in the body of the prayer that its chief characteristics are to be found. It consists, as the Ignatian does, of three points; the first is called adoration, the second communion, and the third co-operation. In the first we adore, praise, love, and thank God. In the second we try to transfer to our own hearts what we have been praising and loving in God, and to participate in its virtue according to our measure. In the third we cooperate with the grace we are receiving by fervent colloquies and generous resolutions. The ancient fathers have handed down to us this method of prayer as in itself a perfect compendium of Christian perfection. They call it having Jesus before their eyes, which is the adoration; Jesus in their hearts, which is the communion; and Jesus in their hands, which is the co-operation: and in these three things all the Christian life consists. After their accustomed fashion, they deduce it from the precept of God to the children of Israel, that the words of the law were to be before their eyes, in their hearts, and bound upon their hands. Thus St. Ambrose calls these three points the three seals. The adoration he calls signaculum in fronte ut semper confiteamur; the communion, signaculum in corde ut semper diligamus; and the co-operation, signaculum in brachio, ut semper operemur. Others again declare that this method of prayer is according to the model which our Lord has given us. Thus the adoration answers to Hallowed be Thy Name, the communion to Thy kingdom come, and the co-operation to Thy will be done. It seems that this method of prayer is, as far as we can judge, the same which prevailed among t£e fathers of the desert; and it is astonishing how many scraps of ancient tradition there are regarding it.¹ Its patristic character is quite the distinguishing feature of the Sulpieian method of prayer. It is a piece of the older spirituality of the Church.

The first point then is adoration. Here we contemplate the subject of our meditation in Jesus, and worship Him because of it in a befitting way. Hence there are two things to be observed in this first point. Suppose, to take the instance given by Tronson, that we are meditating on humility. In this point we first of all consider Jesus as humble, and in this consideration we include three things: our Lord's interior dispositions about humility, the words He said, and the actions He did. Secondly, we lay at His feet six offerings: adoration, admiration, praise, love, joy, and gratitude; sometimes going through all of them, sometimes selecting such as harmonize with the subject of our prayer. This point is extremely important, as it leads us first to contemplate our Blessed Lord as the source of all virtues; secondly, to regard Him as the original and exemplar, of which grace is to make us copies; thirdly, of the two ends of prayer, which Tertullian calls the veneration of God and the petition of man, the first he says is the more perfect; fourthly, St Gregory Nyssen says that if we look only to our own interests, of the two roads which lead k> perfection, prayer, and imitation, the first is the shortest, the aiGst efficacious, and the most solid. Speaking of the efficacy of adoration as a part of prayer, the Fathers use this comparison. They say we may dye a white cloth scarlet in two ways, first by applying the colour to it, and secondly, by steeping it in the dye; and the last is the shortest and makes the colour fastest: so to dip our souls in the dye of the Heart of Jesus by love and adoration, is a quicker way to imbue them with a virtue than multiplied acts of the virtue itself would be. The reader will see that this doctrine is peculiar, and seems at first sight to differ from the ordinary tone of modern books. This method of adoration is with slight modifications applicable to all the six usual subjects of meditation, the attributes and perfectiu-ns of God, the mysteries and virtues of Jesus, the actions at ihe saints, the virtues, the vices, and Christian verities.

The seoona point is communion, by which we endeavour to participate hi what we have been loving and admiring in the first. It contains three things. We have first of all to convince ourselves that the grace we desire to ask il important to us, and we should try to convince ourselves of this chiefly by motives of faith. The second thing is to see how greatly we are wanting in that grace at present, and how many opportunities of acquiring it we have wasted. In this temper we must consider the past, the present, and the future. The third and chief thing is the petition itself for the grace in question; and this petition may take four shapes, the types of which are in Scripture. First, it may be simple petition: petitiones vestrae innotescant apud Deum. Secondly, it may be obsecration, which is the adding of some motive or adjuration to our demand, no by the merits of our Lord, or the graces of our Lady. in omni obsecration e, as the apostle Bpeaks. Thirdly, it may be by thanksgiving, cum gratiarum actione; for the saints tell us that thanksgiving for past graces is the most efficacious petition for new ones. Fourthly3 it may be by insinuation, as when the sisters of Lazarus said no more than, Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick. All these petitions must be accompanied by four conditions: humility, confidence, perseverance, and the union of others in our prayers; as our Lord teaches us to pray for our, not my, daily bread, and for give w$, not we, our trespasses. St. Nilus lays great stress on this last particular, and says it is the fashion in which the angels pray.

The third point is the co-operation, in which we make our resolutions. Now three things are required in these resolutions, that they should be particular, that they should be present, that they should be efficacious. They must be particular, because general ones are of very little use except in union with particular ones. They must be present, that is, we must have some application of our resolution present to our minds, as likely to occur that day They must be efficacious, that is, our subsequent care must be to carry them out with great fidelity, and fully to intend to do so by an explicit intention at the time we make them.

The conclusion of the prayer consists of three things, all of which must be very briefly performed. First we must thank God for the graces He has given us in our prayer, the grace of having endured us in His presence, of having given us the ability to pray, and of all the good thoughts and emotions we have experienced. Secondly we must ask pardon for the faults we have committed in our prayer, negligence, lukewarmness, distraction, inattention, and restlessness. Thirdly we must put it all into our Lady's hands to offer it to God, to supply all defects, and to obtain all blessings. Then follows the spiritual nosegay of St. Francis of Sales, which St. Nilus appears to have been the first to suggest to men of prayer.

The Carmelite method, as given by John of Jesus-Mary, forbids any minute composition of place, and recommends onjy one point of meditation. Its component parts are adoration, oblation, thanksgiving, petition and intercession; but he would not have us take them always in the same order, but take that first which chances to be most congenial to the subject on which we are meditating. On the whole it seems true to say that the contemplative orders hold more to the ancient or as I have called it the Sulpician method, than to the Ignatian; and all methods seem resolvable into one or other of the two.

These two methods of prayer are both of them most holy, even though they are so different. There is a different spirit in them, and they tend to form different characters. But they cannot be set one against the other. They are both from one Spirit, even the H oly Ghost, and e&ch will find the hearts to which they are sent. Happy IP the man who is a faithful disciple of either!

But the class of persons for whom I am writing require something more than these methods of meditation, without their approaching any of what are called the supernatural states of prayer. Many pass beyond meditation, most men slowly, but some rapidly; and when a man's whole life is taken up with God, his studies principally spiritual books, his occupations chiefly religious, he often finds that meditation is no longer the right sort of prayer for him, and that he must practise what ascetical writers call affective prayer. Of this, therefore, I must say something.

The passage from meditation to affective prayer is a crisis in the spiritual life. For we may leave meditation too soon, or we may leave it too late, or we may refuse to leave it at all, even when our Lord is bidding us go higher up. All these three mistakes are fraught with injury to the soul. By the first we fall into delusions, by the second we lose time, by the third we forfeit grace. Spiritual writers give us the following signs that it is time for us to pass to affective prayer. First, when we are unable to meditate, and feel drawn to affections. Secondly, when, do what we will, we get no fruit from our meditation but weariness and disgust. Thirdly, which I would dwell upon particularly, when we are so thoroughly penetrated with the truths of religion and the maxims of Jesus, that we find it hard to occupy our understanding upon them in prayer, but pass instantaneously and as it were unavoidably into affections of the will. Fourthly, when we have made some progress in the horror of sin, the indifference to amusements, the avoiding of occasions of danger, moderation of speech, and mortification of the senses. Then we may begin by little and little to curtail the use of memory and understanding in our prayer, and concentrate ourselves upon the affections of the will; and so by safe degrees we shall pass from meditation to affective prayer.

Courbon thus describes the difference between these two states of jrayer. In the state of meditation we reason upon some subject, or ruminate on a text, or reflect on Borne truth, or meditate on some mystery, for the purpose bA prayer.

of eliciting affections on these subjects. In affective prayer reasonings and reflections have all ceased, and the soul proceeds of its own accord to elicit all the necessary affections. Again, in meditation the soul produces these affections with a certain amount of pain and labour, and has to keep its attention fixed; whereas in affective prayer this operation costs us no trouble, but comes freely and spontaneously. So that affective prayer is superior to meditation in ardour, constancy, and continuity.

When we have made the change at the right time and in the right way, the fruits of this new prayer very soon become visible in the soul. The first is a great love of God, breaking forth in acts of the love of preference, complacence, and benevolence, and in works of effective love. The next are a desire to do God's will, a burning zeal for His glory, a keen appetite for communion, a hankering after solitude, an avidity to know more about God, a love of speaking of God, an increase of courage, a desire to die, a zeal for souls, and a contempt of the world. At the same time this kind of prayer has its own peculiar dangers. We are apt to exhaust ourselves by the vehemence of immoderate affections, to. make devotion consist wholly of fervid feelings, to imagine we are feeling what the saints felt, to believe that everything we do is done by an inspiration, to be too active and precipitate in our good works, and to be indiscreet in our zeal. In affective prayer distractions tease us more sensibly than in meditation, because our understanding is less occupied. The subtraction of sweetness is far more sensibly felt \ and the world and the devil combine to attack us with greater energy than before. Above all, we are peculiarly liable, to a degree which surprises us, to vanity, anger, and want of custody of the senses. Against these, however, we may set the supernatural favours which usually accompany this state of prayer; such as the gift of tears, interior colloquies, touches of the soul, the languor of love, the liquefaction of the soul in God, the wound of love, the glimpses of our own nothingness, and the superabundance of spiritual sweetness. But full instruction or these points belongs to a treatise on prayer. Enough has been said of mental prayer for our present purpose. It remains to speak of vocal prayer.

It is one of the marks of false spirituality, as appears from the Condemned Propositions, to make light of vocal prayer. It is the universal custom of the faithful, even if it be not necessary to salvation, as St. Thomas says it is not. St. Augustine seems to hold the contrary opinion, and gives as a reason the model which our Saviour gave us. It is, however, says St. Thomas, of immense utility, and that for three reasons. It awakens interior devotion, and sustains it when awakened. We ought to honour God with all His gifts, and voice is His gift as well as mind. It forms a vent for interior devotion, which increases in vehemence by means of the very vent. In vocal prayer three attentions are requisite, though not always all of them at once, attention to the order and pronunciation of the words, attention to the meaning of the words, and attention to the end of the words which is Him to whom we address them, and that for which we are petitioning.

Speaking in a rough way there are commonly four kinds of vocal prayer, with a book, without a book, intercessory, and ejaculatory. If we pray from a prayer-book *t is well to have only one book at a time, and not 23 to change it frequently. We should read with pauses, occasionally closing the book and resting on the thought of God j and we should be careful not to choose a book which is much above our real feelings and present attainments. If we pray without a book, we must be brief and of few words, because of God's majesty; we must scrupulously use words with forethought, and interpose silent intervals in our prayers. In the matter of intercessory prayer, we must be cautious of promising people we will pray for them. We must be wary of perpetual or multiplied novenas. We must never fix a definite length of time for which we will pray for an object, and abandon it then if God has not vouchsafed to hear our prayers. And in our intercession a prominent place must always be given to the Holy Father, and his intention? for the needs of the Church. Ejaculatory prayers should be frequent, but generally speaking not under rule or of obligation. They must be almost incessant in times of temptation, and it is desirable always to have some chosen ones ready.

There are many cautions which are necessary in the use of vocal prayer. We must be careful not to burden ourselves with too many of them, and it is well to begin them always with a mental act of the divine presence. When we have given way to distractions, and our attention has been imperceptibly averted from what we are saying, and at last we wake up to a consciousness of it, it very much concerns our peace of mind, that we should not say over again what we said with inattention. We must simply stop and make an act of contrition, and so proceed. The opposite conduct gives rise to many scruples, and ends by making vocal prayer burdensome and odious.

When slovenly habits have crept./ver us, we must set mat ters right by disallowing ourselves in certain liberties which we have taken, and so cure our slovenliness by taking a few steps in the direction of the other extreme. Thus, if we have been in the habit of saying vocal prayers out of doors, or walking about, or in bed, and some perceptible negligence has come of it, it is better for a little while to abstain from doing so, and say them in our own room, or kneeling, or in some slightly penitential way. We must not forget that this blessed right of vocal prayer is not only a frequent source of scruples, but even a most prolific occasion of venial sin; and it is so almost always from want of reverence and forethought. Hence we should never begin with a probable interruption staring us in the face, and we should keep a strict custody over our eyes. It is said of St. Charles Borromeo that ne would not say off by heart the more familiar parts of the missal and breviary, because he considered that his keeping his eyes fixed on the book, and reading the words so much conduced to devotion.

It is well to meditate occasionally on the dignity of vocal prayers, and the communion of saints into which we enter by reciting them, especially in such world-wide devotions as the rosary, and scapular-prayers. They who are much addicted to vocal prayer should cultivate a special devotion to the angels before the throne of God, who are ever offering in their sweet thuribles the prayers of the just to His compassionate majesty. We must remember that, while other means do not always apply to all eases, prayer has not only a fitness but a special fitness for all cases. Some persons, when they have prayed for some virtue or against some vice or temptation for a long while, grow disheartened and leave off. The devil suggests to them that their prayers will not be heard, not for lack of goodness in God, but because they are unworthy to be heard, and that it is true humility in them to think so. But in truth such an abasement of spirit is not humility, but a delusion contrary both to faith and hope; for this theological truth is very much to be remembered, that prayer rests solely on God's goodness, and not at all on our merits. Those who find themselves inapt at mental prayer should cultivate vocal. But if we have taken upon ourselves a burden of much vocal prayer, and find ourselves growing inattentive in spite of ourselves, we must lessen the quantity gradually, compensating for this by a more arduous effort of attention. As a general rule it is best to have only a little vocal prayer, but to persevere in that little with extreme fidelity. St. Theresa says, that comfortable postures are best for mental prayer, penitential postures for vocal. Under any circumstances reverential postures are half the battle of vocal prayer. If a mau finds vocal prayer an aid to inward recollection, it is a sign he has a vocation to it; but St. Thomas says, if it be a hindrance to inward recollection, he had best abandon what is not of obligation Finally, those who have for a long time been tepidly neglecting meditation, have np better means to refresh themselves, and so get back to mental prayer, than by giving themselves up for a season to habits, perhaps long abandoned, of childlike vocal prayer.

Now a few words on answers to prayer, a subject which teases so many devout souls. St. Bernard says in his Lent sermons that all bad prayers are bad for one of three reasons: either they are timid, c r they are tepid, or they are temerarious. We may dismiss therefore these three kinds of prayer as not likely to be answered. Answers to prayer have several characteristics which we ought to bear in mind. For the most part they are long in coming; and the thing asked, when it does come, comes often in another shape; and as often, something else comes instead of it. Answers come quickest when the prayer is secret and undivulged, or when crosses are asked for, so we nc:ist be cautious, or when we ask through our Blessed Lady, or as St. Catherine of Bologna tells us, through the Souls in Purgatory/ or as S. Theresa tells us, through St. Joseph. It is false spirituality which teaches us not to pray, and to pray perse veringly, for the good of individuals. But our power of impetration depends very much on two things, our having habits of prayer and being in habitual communication with God, and our praying in the pure spirit of simple faith.

We always receive three gifts from God when we pray humbly and earnestly. The first, S. Nilus says, is the gift of prayer itself. u God wishes to bless thee for a longer time while thou art persevering in thy prayer; for what more blessed than to be detained in colloquy with God?" We pretend for awhile not to hear the petitions of those we love, because we so love to hear them asking. So Joseph feigned with his brethren. You say, says St. John Climacus, I have received nothing from God, when all the while you have received one of His greatest gifts, perseverance in prayer. It is often because He so loves prayer, that God delays to answer it. The second gift is the increase of our merits by persevering in unanswered prajer. He delays to hear His saints, says St. Gregory, that He may increase their merits. Eo magis exaudiun 23*

^YO PRAYER.

tur ad meritum, quo citius non exauliuntur ad votum The third gift is that by this perseverance we prepare ourselves to receive the grace with much greater fruit than if it were given us at once. S. Isidore says, God delays to hear your prayer either because you are not in good dispositions to receive what you ask, or that you may be able to receive more excellent gifts which he is desirous of conferring upon you. So, says Gerson, it happens to us as it does sometimes to a beggar, to whom men give a more liberal alms because they have kept him waiting at their door so long. Moreover the relics of our old unconverted lives, not yet burned out of us, cause prayer to operate more slowly than if our penance had been more brisk and vigorous.

Mystical writers give us various signs by which we may know, even at the time, that our prayers have been answered. We often have an heroic confidence that our prayers have been answered, without knowing to what we may attribute it, and when this confidence is coupled with a great love of God, a contempt of ourselves, and an almost irresistible propensity to break forth into thanksgiving, we may for the most part assume that our prayer has been answered. Very often this confidence is preceded by a vehement inspiration to pray for the object in question, and God, says St. Augustine, would not thus impel us to pray for a thing He was not about to grant. Sometimes God sends in addition to these internal marks an outward sign in the shape of a sorrow or disgrace; such were the rebuke of Heli to Anna, and of our Lord to Mary at the marriage feast in Cana, and of our Lord to the Chanansean woman. They were the precursors of answered prayer. As Job says, He who is mocked by his friend as I am, iv ill call upon God, and He will hear him. Richard of St. Victor mentions an unusual strength of faith, or depth of humility, or earnestness of importunity, as inward signs of answered prayer. But S. Bonaventure fears that in judging of them we may too readily attribute to the Holy Ghost what are only the movements of excited nature. Lastly St. Ambrose gives the following rule. In commenting on the words, If two of you shall agree upon earth, concerning anything whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven: for where there are two or three gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them, he says, What are these two or three but the body, the soul, and the Holy Ghost? For when the soul collects all its interior powers within the sanctuary of its heart, that it may pray to the Father in secret, and when the body collects its external senses and unites them to the soul, the Holy Spirit approaches and breathes into this union quietude and peace, so that the prayer may be fervent and efficacious; and then it is that Jesus is present in the midst of the three. t 0 happy union in which so many combine to supplicate the Eternal Father! What more could be desired, what more efficacious be proposed? Delight in the Lord, and He will grant thee thy petitions, says David. For if it is your joy to please God, it will be His joy to hear your prayers.

We must be careful however not to fret ourselves overmuch about the answers to our prayers. We should pray in faith and with a deep sense of our own unworthiness, and leave the rest to God. Even in a self-interested pcint of view no prayer has such a power of impetration as that whieh comes from a will conformed to the will of

God. This was the secret of St. Gertrude's potent intercession.

There is one subject more which demands our atten. tion when we are speaking of vocal prayer. A man who is much given to vocal prayer is in no slight degree in the power of his prayer-book.² The choice of favourite devotions is therefore a matter of great importance; and what devotions can we choose so safely as those which are approved by the Church, and those which are indulgenced by the Church. There is a great connection between indulgences and the spiritual life, and the use of indulgenced devotions is almost an infallible test of a good catholic. St. Alphonso says that in order to become a saint nothing more is needed than to gain all the indulgences we can; and the Blessed Leonard of Port Maurice has something to the same effect. The private and approved revelations of the Saints throw considerable light upon this subject. St. Bridget was raised up in great measure, as she says herself, to propagate the honour of indulgences; and so St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi saw souls punished in purgatory for nothing else but a light esteem of them.

In the spiritual life there are what I may call eight beatitudes of indulgences. First, as they have to do

PttAYER. 27& with sin, God's justice, and the temporal pain of sin, they keep us among thoughts which belong to the purgative way, and which are safest for us, although we are continually and impatiently trying to get out of them. Secondly, they have a peculiarly unworldly effect upon us. They lead us into the invisible world; they surround us with images of a supernatural character; they fill our minds with a class of ideas, which detach us from worldly things and rebuke earthly pleasures. Thirdly, they keep the doctrine of purgatory constantly before us, and so force upon us a perpetual exercise of faith, as well as suggest to us motives of holy fear. Fourthly, they are an exercise of charity to the faithful departed, which may easily become heroic, which may be practised by those who can give no other alms, and which has all the effects upon our own souls that accompany works of mercy. Fifthly, God's glory is very much concerned in them, and that in two ways, in the release of the souls from purgatory and their earlier admission to His heavenly court, and also in the manifestation of His perfections which indulgences display, such as His infinite purity and detestation of sin, even the slightest, and the exactness of His justice coupled with the ingenuity of His mercy. Sixthly, they honour the satisfactions of Jesus. They are to His satisfactions what the doctrine that all forgiveness of sin is due to Him is to His merits. So to speak, they leave nothing of Him unused; and thus they illustrate the copiousness of His redemption. The;f honour likewise the satisfactions of Mary and the saints, in such a way as still more to honour Him. Seventhly, they deepen our views of sin, and cause us to grow in horror of it. For they constantly keep before us that s fti PRATER.

punishment is due even to forgiven sin, and that thai punishment is one of the most intolerable kind, and though it be but temporal, it needs the satisfactions of Jesus to deliver us from it. Eighthly, they keep us m narmony with the spirit of the Church, which is of paramount importance to those who are striving to live interior lives, and are threading their way among the difficulties of asceticism and inward holiness. For to undervalue indulgences is a sign of heresy; and the hatred which heresy has for them is an index of the devil's dislike of them, and that, in its turn, is a measure of their power and of their acceptableness with God. They mix us up with so many peculiarities of the Church, from the jurisdiction of the Holy See to the belief in purgatory, good works, the saints, and satisfaction, that they almost insure our orthodoxy. And the whole history of the unhappy errors which have vexed the Church on the subject of the spiritual life shows us that, to be thoroughly holy, we must be thoroughly catholic, and thoroughly Roman catholic, for otherwise than Roman we can be neither catholic nor holy at all.

Then, as to the indulgenced devotions themselves, there are these advantages in them. "We are sure they are approved by the Church, because they are more than approved. We know that numbers of holy souls in the world are using them every day, and by uniting ourselves with them we enter more deeply into the communion of saints, and the life of the Church which is her unity. For the reasons I have already given, we spiritualize our minds and quicken our faith very much by the use of them. They lead us to pray in a manner and about subjects which the Church desires; and we attain so many ends at once when we use them. For by the same act we not only pray, but we revere the keys of the Church, we honour Jesus, His Mother and the saints, we get rid of our own temporal punishment, or, which is a greater fching, we release the dead and so glorify God, and as may be seen by looking over the devotions which the Church has indulgenced, we transfer into our minds a great amount of touching doctrine which serves as an aliment for mental prayer and reverential love.

Let us take one instance of this. I cannot conceive a man being spiritual who does not habitually say the Rosary. It may be called the queen of indulgenced devotions. First consider its importance, as a specially catholic devotion, as so peculiarly giving us a catholic turn of mind by keeping Jesus and Mary perpetually before us, and as a singular help to final perseverance, if we continue the recital of it, as various revelations show. Next consider its institution by St. Dominic in 1214, by revelation, for the purpose of combating heresy, and the success which attended it. Its matter and form are not less striking. Its matter consists of the Pater, the Ave and the Gloria, whose authors are our Blessed Lord Himself, St. Gabriel, St. Elizabeth, the Council of Ephesus, and the whole Church, led in the west by St. Damasus. Its form is a complete abridgment of £he Gospel, consisting of fifteen mysteries in decades, expressing the three great phases of the work of redemption, joy, sorrow, and glory. Its peculiarity is the next attractive feature about it. It unites mental with vocal prayer. It is a devotional compendium of theology. It is an efficacious practice of the presence of God. It is one chief channel of the traditions of the Incarnation among the faithful. It shows the true nature of devotion to our Blessed Lady; and is a means of realizing the communion of saints. Its ends are the love of Jesus, reparation to the Sacred Humanity for the outrages of heresy, and a continual affectionate thanksgiving to the Most Holy Trinity for the benefit of the Incarnation. It is sanctioned by the Church, by indulgences, by miracles, by the conversion of sinners, and by the usage of the saints. See also how much the method of reciting it involves. We should first make a picture of the mystery, and always put our Blessed Lady into the picture j for the rosary is hers. We should couple rome duty or virtue with each mystery; and fix beforehand on some soul in purgatory to whom to apply the vast indulgences. Meanwhile, we must not strain our minds, or be scrupulous; for to say the Rosary well is quite a thing which requires learning. Be member always, as the Baccolta teaches, that the fifteenth mystery is the coronation of Mary, and not merely the glory of the saints. Our beads land us and leave us at the feet of Mary Crowned. I should not wish to say anything that would seem to limit the devotion of others; but, all things considered, why should we have any vocal prayers which are not indulgenced devotions, now that the Church has indulgencad them in such abundance?

Footnotes

1. I may remark by the way that it is unfortunate that Honoratua a Sancta Maria, who collected the tradition of the fathers on several supernatural states of prayer, should have taken the wrong side in the great controversy of charity, and so should have disfigured his book, and blunted the effect of his evidence. ↩

2. When there are so many excellent manuals of devotion, it may geetn invidious to single out one for commendation. Yet without meaning in the least to criticize others, I would venture to call the attention of my readers to a little hook, published by Messrs. Burns and Lambert, under the title of A Few Flowers from the Garden. Its merits are that it is simple, practical, not overloaded, well seected, suitable to all, contains many indulgenced devotions, and nas evidently grown up from long personal use. It is not a fanciful or merely literary compilation: and its merits will grow upon thou* who use it. ↩