Chapter 29. On Nine Different Helps to Devotion

1.—The helps to devotion are many and various, amongst them we may mention in the first place, an earnest and sincere search after it, with a resolute heart determined upon adopting every necessary means to obtain possession of this precious pearl, however difficult or arduous the effort may be: because as no great object can ever be attained without difficulty, so this is no exception to that universal rule, at all events for beginners.

2.—We must protect the heart from vain and idle thoughts, from strange affections and desires, and from all restlessness and the struggles of passion, because all feelings of this sort are a clog upon devotion, and the heart requires to be attuned for prayer, like the lute for music.

3.—A guard must be placed on the senses, especially on the eyes, the ears, and on the tongue, because by the tongue the heart is dissipated, and through the eyes and ears strange things fill the mind, and the calm and peace of the soul are troubled. Therefore is there much good reason in the saying, that a contemplative should be dumb and deaf and blind, because the less he is distracted externally, the more composed will he be internally.

4.—Solitude is also a powerful assistant, because it not only removes the occasions of distraction from the senses and the heart, but invites us to retire within ourselves and commune with God alone, urged thereto by the opportunity of the place, where he alone is admitted.

5.—Another help is derived from reading devout books which supply matter for consideration, collect the heart, awaken devotion, and cause a man to reflect with pleasure on what he has learnt with delight, because memory ever loves to recall the recollection of what the heart delights in.

6.—The habitual consciousness of God's presence and the feeling that we are always walking in his sight, and the frequent use of those short prayers which St. Augustin calls ejaculations are also powerful assistants: because they keep a guard over the heart and foster the warmth of devotion, as we have before explained. Thus will a man at all hours find himself prepared for prayer. This is a most essential point, in a spiritual life, and one of the most powerful resources for such as have neither much time nor opportunity for prayer, and he who is careful on this point will soon derive great advantages from it.

7.—Constant perseverance in good exercises at their regular and ordinary times and places, is of powerful use, especially at morning and night, which, according to the Holy Scriptures, are the most suitable times for prayer.

8.—Hardships, abstinence, a poor diet, a hard bed, the hair cloth, discipline and such like, are also powerful aids : because as all these are originated by feelings of devotion, so do they serve to quicken preserve and increase the root from which they spring, which is devotion.

9.—Works of mercy are also of importance, inasmuch as they inspire us with confidence to present ourselves before God: they unite good deeds with our prayers, so as to make them not barely dry requests, but a claim for our prayers to be mercifully received as proceeding from hearts that have shewn mercy to others.