Part II, Chapter VIII

Certain Profitable Advices on the Subject of Meditation

Above all things, Philothea, when you rise from meditation, remember the resolutions you have taken, and, as the occasion offers, carefully reduce them to practice that very day. This is the great fruit of meditation, without which it is not only unprofitable, but frequently hurtful; for virtues meditated upon, and not practised, often puff up the spirit, and make us imagine that we really are such as we resolve to be, which doubtless is true, when our resolutions are lively and solid; now they are not so, but, on the contrary, vain and dangerous when they are not reduced to practice. We must, therefore, by all means, seek every occasion, little or great, of putting them in execution. For example: if I have resolved by mildness to gain the hearts of such as offend me, I will seek this very day an opportunity to meet them, and salute them kindly; or, if I should not meet them, at least to speak well of them, and pray to God in their behalf.

After prayer, be careful not to agitate your heart, lest you spill the precious balm it has received. My meaning is, that you must, for some time, if possible, remain in silence, and gently remove your heart from prayer to your other employments; retaining, as long as you can, a feeling of the affections which you have conceived. A man who has received some precious liquor in a vase of porcelain, in carrying it home walks gently, not looking aside, but generally before him, for fear of stumbling, and sometimes upon his dish, for fear of spilling the liquor. Thus ought you to act when you finish your meditation; suffer nothing to distract you, but look forward with caution; or, to speak more plainly, should you meet with any one with whom you are obliged to enter into conversation, there is no other remedy but to watch over your heart, that as little of the liquor of holy prayer as possible may be spilt on the occasion.

You must even accustom yourself to know how to pass from prayer to those occupations which your state of life lawfully requires, though ever so foreign from the affections which you have received in prayer. Thus the lawyer must learn to pass from prayer to pleading; the merchant, to commerce; and the married woman, to the care of her family, with so much ease and tranquillity that their minds may not be disturbed; for, since prayer and the duties of your state of life are both in conformity with the will of God, you must learn to pass from the one to the other in the spirit of humility and devotion.

You must also know that it may sometimes happen that immediately after the preparation, you will feel your affections moved towards God. In this case, Philothea, you must yield to the attraction, and cease to follow the method I have before given; for, although, generally speaking, consideration precedes affections and resolutions, yet when the Holy Ghost gives you the latter before the former, you must not then seek the former, since it is used for no other purpose than to excite the latter. In a word, whenever affections present themselves, we must expand our hearts to make room for them, whether they come before or after considerations; and, although I have placed them after the considerations, I have done so merely to distinguish more plainly the parts of prayer, for otherwise it is a general rule never to restrain the affections, but to let them have their free course whenever they present themselves. This must be observed even with respect to thanksgiving, oblation, and petition, which may likewise be used in the midst of the considerations, for they must be restrained no more than the other affections; though afterwards, for the conclusion of the meditation, they must be repeated. But as for resolutions, they are always to be made after the affections, and immediately before the conclusion of the whole meditation; because, as in these we represent to ourselves particular and familiar objects, they would put us in danger of distractions should we mingle them with our affections.

While we are forming our affections and resolutions it is advisable to use colloquies, and to speak, sometimes to our Lord, sometimes to the angels and the persons represented in the mysteries; to the saints, to ourselves, to our own heart, to sinners, and even to insensible creatures; after the example of David in his psalms, and of other saints in their prayers and meditations.

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