Chapter II: Franciscan

ALTHOUGH Franciscan spirituality is distinctly affective in character, more deeply rooted in the older tradition, and more akin to St. François de Sales and the Oratorian School than to St. Ignatius, it has yet produced some very striking and beautiful methods of mental prayer which deserve to be much better known than they are.

St. Bonaventura, the Seraphic doctor, whose voluminous writings form the theological and devotional basis of Franciscan piety, defines mental prayer in the words, 'Pure mental prayer is made when the lips move not but the heart speaks to God' (Sentences, Bk. IV., Dist. XV., Pt. ii., Art. ii., Q. 3). In his De Progressu Rel. (Bk. II., chap. lx.) he writes more fully: 'In mental prayer the mind alone unfolds its desires before God, pouring forth to Him the affections of the heart, interiorly clinging to Him by love and reverently adoring Him. Words, because of their inadequacy, are not used, for the more completely the soul empties itself into God the deeper go the affections and the less ability one has of expressing them.'

References to the practice of mental prayer in early Franciscan literature can hardly be called 'methods' in the modern sense, but there is a certain methodicity in some of them. Spiritual reading is made much of as the 'seed and material of meditation' (David of Augsburg, d. circa 1272, De Exterioris et Interioris Hominis compositione, a widely read book which greatly influenced Gerald of Zutphen, De Reformatione

Memoriæ), reflection upon what is read leading to prayer. St. Bonaventura has an interesting comment on such reflections: 'We may consider our meditations on our Bridegroom, the Word of God, His beauty, His power, His majesty, as His conversations with us.' In the De Progressu Rel. (Bk. II., chap. lxi.) he shows how in our prayer we may assume 'the rôle of different persons according to the different needs and dispositions of the heart,' i.e. as a criminal before his judge, a servant before his master, a soul in temptation and difficulty before its Saviour, a child before its father, etc. The author of the Speculum Disciplinæ, probably Bernard de Besse, recommends the pausing for reflection and prayer whilst reading Holy Scripture or spiritual books.

The Stimulus Amoris, which was commonly thought to be the work of St. Bonaventura but is more probably from the pen of James of Milan, a Friar Minor who was a lector in that city towards the end of the thirteenth century, gives a method of meditating on the Passion which may be noted. The Passion of our Saviour, he says, may be considered in six ways, for our imitation, compassion, admiration, exultation, transformation, and repose. 'Consider what things He suffered for you, and how He conducted Himself in all His sufferings; and as far as you are able, conform yourself to Him your Model . . . we shall find great cause for admiring the Passion of Christ if we consider who, what, for whom, and from whom He suffered.' Contemplating the Sacred Wounds, we shall be moved not alone to compassion and admiration, but the exultation in the threefold revelation that man is redeemed thereby, the choirs of angels restored and God's infinite mercy made known. So too by continual contemplation of the Crucifix are we transformed into Christ crucified, and find in Him our one repose. 'If you meditate well on His Passion, you shall thereby enter into His side and quickly come to His Heart.'

But it is with St. Pedro of Alcantara (1499-1562) whom St. Teresa praises – 'Y qué bueno nos le elevó Dios ahora en el bendito fray Pedro de Alcántara. No esta ya el mundo para sufrir tanta perfeccion' (Life, chaps. xxvii. and xxxix.) – that we come first to a definite method of mental prayer comparable with those of St. Ignatius, and which entirely deserves the encomium of Gregory XV, who declared that 'A most efficacious light for leading souls to God is poured forth from its pages. Its teaching is heavenly. Indeed, the marks of His presence throughout make it evident that the Holy Ghost guided the pen of the Saint.'

The De Oratione et Meditatione, commonly known under the title of A Golden Treatise of Mental Prayer, has been translated into Eastern as well as nearly all European languages; indeed, though it may be by accident, I have seen more copies of it in the Far East than at home. An excellent unabridged edition (would that the example were more faithfully followed!), translated from the Spanish edition of Don Pablo La Fuente in 1882, itself carefully conformed to Medina's edition of 1587, was published in 1905 by Mowbray, the translation being by the Rev. G. F. Bullock, M.A., and the editing by Fr. Hollings, S.S.J.E. A new edition has lately been published in the 'Orchard Books' series, the translating and editing being the work of Fr. Dominic Devas, O.F.M.

St. Pedro does not merely give a method of prayer or certain meditations, but a concise though very complete treatise on prayer, based mainly on the Libro de la Oracion y Meditacion of the Dominican, Luis of Granada (1505-1588), St. Thomas, St. Augustine, St. Bernard and St. Bonaventura. There is one characteristically

'Ignatian' touch in the chapter on how to meditate on the Passion, in which he says: 'We should have our Lord present before our eyes . . . as actually suffering, and with all the circumstances of that suffering; especially in these four points, viz.

'Who is it that suffers?' 'For whom does He suffer?' 'How does He suffer?' 'For what cause does He suffer?'

He refers once to à Kempis, who, with the Brethren of the Common Life, was greatly influenced by earlier Franciscans and, in turn, influenced St. Ignatius and the Spanish School through translations into Castilian of their works.

The Alcantarine Method is given in chapter v., the preceding chapters being devoted to two sets of meditations for each day of the week, the first set being on 'The Memory of thy Sins,' the vanity of the world, death, judgment, Hell, the glory of the blessed in Heaven and the Divine Blessings, the Saint beginning his week, in the Spanish way, on Monday. The second set deal with the Passion. The method has six divisions:

I. The Preparation

An Act of Recollection. Kneeling, standing, 'prostrate on the ground, or, if need be, sitting, having made the Sign of the Cross, let us gather up our thoughts, and put away from us all the things of this life; then let us lift up our mind to our Lord, as knowing that He is looking for us.'

An Act of Contrition. If the meditation be made in the morning, the Confiteor should be said; if in the evening, we should examine our consciences, grieve over our shortcomings, and humble ourselves before God. The words of Abraham (Gen.

xviii. 27) and of the Psalmist (xxiii. 1-3) may be used.

A Petition for the Divine Assistance. The 'Veni Creator,' with its versicle and collect, and a petition for the grace of attention, devotion, interior recollectedness, fear and reverence, 'that we may so use this time of prayer that we may come from it with new fervour and strength for all the needs of His service. Prayer which does not produce this fruit immediately is very imperfect and almost valueless.'

II. The Reading

'of what we have to meditate upon in prayer.' This must be 'attentive and serious,' not merely that we may understand with our minds, 'but still more we should give to it our whole will that we may taste the sweetness of what we read.' The reading should not be long, for its object is to lead to meditation and prayer.

III. The Meditation

This may be of two kinds, intellectual or imaginative. The former will be used with such subjects as the Perfections of God, His blessings, etc., the latter with more concrete ones, such as the last things, the Mysteries of the Life and Passion of our Lord. In the latter 'we should try to represent to our minds each item of our subject as it really is, or would become, and as though the action were being performed in our presence in the very place in which we are.' This actual representation of our subject is much better than letting our minds travel into the past as to an historical act taking place afar off. We must not use too much violence in this exercise of the imagination, 'lest it weaken its capacity' and we exhaust ourselves so that we are unable to pray well.

In a later chapter, St. Pedro gives certain counsels as to this part of mental prayer, in which he lays stress upon the fact that his aim is ' love and the affections of the will rather than the speculations of the understanding,' so that ' as soon as one should feel himself fired by the love of God he should forthwith put aside all these considerations and thoughts . . . and leave meditation for the love of contemplation.' The whole of this section deserves careful study.

IV. The Thanksgiving

First, for the subject upon which we have meditated, then for the blessings of creation, redemption, vocation, etc.; for God's goodness in having created us in His own Image and Likeness, for having endowed us with the powers of Memory, Intellect and Will that we might remember, know and love Him, for our Guardian Angel, the Incarnation and Redemption, for our birth of Christian parents, our Baptism and the other Sacraments, and for all the particular inspirations and blessings He has bestowed upon us, saying, if we will, the Benedicite omnia opera or Ps. ciii.

V. The Oblation of Ourselves

Aroused by the thought of what God has done for us, we cry, ' What reward shall I give unto the Lord for all the benefits which He hath done unto me ? ' and go on to make a twofold offering to Him; first, to be His servants for ever, submitting ourselves wholly and entirely to the Divine Will; and second, ' We should offer to God the Father, all the merits and labours of His dear Son, all the travails of His soul which, in His obedience, in this world He endured, from the Manger-crib to Calvary; for all these are our health and the inheritance which He hath bequeathed to us in that New Covenant by which He hath made us heirs of so great a treasure. For as that is no less our own which He has bestowed upon us of His grace than that which we have obtained by our own efforts, so those merits and gifts which He hath bestowed upon us are as much our own as if we had toiled and laboured for them ourselves . . . this is the best and most precious offering we can make.' I have transcribed this passage more fully, not only from its importance, but also because it anticipates the teaching of the French Oratorian School, and especially of St. John Eudes.

VI. The Petition

This is to be of the most confident and comprehensive order. We begin ' with all the fulness of love and zeal for the honour of our Blessed Lord,' with the prayer that all men may come to know, praise and adore Him ; going on to pray for the Pope and all the prelates of the Church ; for rulers ; for all the members of Christ's Mystical Body ; for the righteous ; for sinners ; for the holy souls ; for all the sick and poor, prisoners and captives. Then we beg for ourselves the remission of our sins and grace to overcome our temptations, for the virtues in which consists all Christian perfection, Faith, Hope, Charity, Holy Fear, Humility, Patience, Obedience, Fortitude, Poverty of Spirit, Contempt for Worldly Things, true Discretion, Purity of Intention and other like virtues ; and lastly, for such lesser virtues ' which will yet help us to keep the greater ones,' as temperance, control of the tongue, guardianship of the senses, the gravity and recollectedness of the exterior, sweetness of manner, good example, strictness with ourselves, and so on ; concluding with a prayer of most earnest longing and desire for the love of God, of which the Saint gives one of the most beautiful to be found in spiritual literature.

The most striking thing about this method is its completeness. It is not merely a meditation as is commonly understood, distinct from our other prayers and devotional exercises ; it embraces them all in one act, which St. Pedro thinks should occupy not less than an hour and a half to two hours, half an hour of which he would have devoted to the preparation ' to tune the viol and calm the imagination.' This, in our restless and nerve-ridden days, may seem excessive, though it is largely what we need, and would save many the fortunes they spend on rest cures and the like, but it was by no means thought so in St. Pedro's day. St. Teresa advises that sinners should spend at least two hours daily in mental prayer (Life, viii. 9), although she admits that she herself ' for some years . . . was more occupied with the wish to see the end of the time appointed . . . and in watching the hourglass, than with other thoughts that were good' (ibid. viii. 10). And if we take our mental prayer, as St. Pedro clearly intends, as the prayer of the day, including in it our morning or evening prayers, examen of conscience, spiritual reading, thanksgiving, intercession, etc., we can hardly call the time devoted to it over-long, though most people nowadays would probably have to divide it up in separate times during the day. Even then, it would be a distinct advantage to link all our spiritual exercises each day to one main, predominant thought arising out of our mental prayer.

Fra Mattia Bellintani da Salo (b. 1534) entered the new Capuchin Reform some ten years before the death of St. Pedro of Alcantara, and began to preach throughout Italy in 1561. His whole life was that of a ' true Apostle,' as St. Charles Borromeo called him ; a ceaseless activity founded on prayer (vide The Capuchins, Fr. Cuthbert, O.S.F.C., vol. i., p. 204). Amongst his many writings is the pratica dell' orazione mentale, o vero contemplativa, in which, having given an explanation of the Paternoster, he goes on to speak of vocal and mental prayer, and gives a method for the latter which he divides into the usual three parts, preparation, meditation and acts of the will.

I. Preparation in General (remote) consists in avoiding sin and in cultivating the desire for prayer. A noteworthy characteristic of his teaching is his emphasis on the necessity for this desire which brings us to prayer, makes it fruitful, and preserves us from worldly thoughts and that frittering away of time in unnecessary things which hinder and disturb so much of our life.

The Immediate Preparation is made by two profound acts.

(1) Of Humility of Heart.

(2) Of Contrition for our Sins.

II. Meditation. The subject should be divided into points, so that the mind, proceeding logically and easily by degrees, may better take in the whole. This part of the method is most important for beginners, since they need matter to kindle the fire of desires and affections of the will.

III. Acts of the Will, in which the soul is drawn to Him upon Whom she has meditated, and pours herself out in acts of fear, of contrition, of desire, hope and of love. From these are derived the resolutions and prayers with which our prayer should conclude.

(1) The definite purpose of amendment and of a deeper love for God.

(2) The oblation of one's whole self to Him.

(3) Acts of praise, thanksgiving and love.

M. Bremond describes the method of Père Joseph du Tremblay as ' one of the most stimulating, most attractive and simplest that I know of,' and remarks on the little success attained, either in his own or in later times, of the author's Introduction à la Vie spirituelle par une facile méthode d'oraison, ' one of the most beautiful works of our religious literature' (Histoire littéraire du Sentiment Religieux en France, vol. ii., chap. iii., sect. 5).

The method consists of three parts :

I. The Preparation, in which are four acts :

(1) Of making a right intention.

(2) Of profound humiliation.

(3) Of recalling to mind the subject chosen.

(4) Of withdrawal from distractions.

II. The Meditation. The application of the memory, imagination and intellect to the subject in four acts, by which we seek a knowledge

(1) Of God, the prototype of the particular perfection manifested in the mystery we are considering.

(2) Of oneself.

(3) Of what our Lord does or suffers in this mystery.

(4) Of the end for which He works or suffers.

In an hour's prayer, about twenty minutes are to be spent on this part.

III. Affections of the Will.

(1) Of Oblation.

(2) Of Petition.

(3) Of Imitation.

(4) Of Union.

It will be seen that this method, whilst reminiscent of the Ignatian plan, is infused with the Franciscan spirit, and intended primarily, as it was, for Capuchin novices, is designed to lead them to the higher degrees of prayer. The first act of the meditation proper, too, emphasises that note, which was to become so prominent in Bérulle and the Oratorian School, of the pre-eminence of God Whose perfections and ways should ever be the first object of our worship and our prayer. We shall see this conception developed to its fullest extent by St. John Eudes.