Volume I, Treatise V, Chapter XII

Of How Great Importance It Is to Dwell-upon These Acts and Affectionate Motions of the Will

Ir is of so great importance to dwell a long time upon these affectionate motions of the will, that the masters of a spiritual life say, that prayer is then in its sovereign degree of perfection, when no longer recurring to meditation, in order to excite in us the love of God, our heart being penetrated with this love it sighs after, enjoys it, and reposes itself therein, as in the only end of its researches and desires. It is this the spouse teaches us, by her own example in the Canticles, when she says, “I have found him whom my soul loves; I will hold him fast and will not him go” (Canticle of Canticles 3:4): and what she intimates to us by these other words, “I sleep, but my heart is awake.” (Ibid. 5:2) For in perfect prayer, the understanding is as it were asleep, because all its functions are, in a manner suspended; but the will and heart are awake, and melt with tenderness for the heavenly spouse. This sleep also of the spouse is so agreeable to her beloved, that “he conjures the daughters of Jerusalem not to disturb the repose of his spouse, and not to awake her till she wakes of herself.” (Canticle of Canticles 3:5) So that meditation, and all those other functions of the mind in prayer, are all made use of, and directed to contemplation, and are as so many steps to help us to ascend to it. It is after this manner that St. Austin speaks of it, in his book he calls the Ladder of Paradise, where he says, that “‘ we search by reading, we find by meditating, we ask by prayer, and we obtain by contemplation.” (Lib. de Scala Parad.) And afterwards making mention of that passage proposed in the gospel, “Seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7); he applies it to the same thought: “‘ Seek,” says he, “in reading, and you will find in meditating; knock by the help of prayer, and the gate shall be opened unto you by means of contemplation.” There is also, says Albertus Magnus, and many saints, this difference between the contemplation of the faithful and that of the heathen philosophers; that of the philosophers only ‘perfeeted the understanding by the knowledge of truth, and stopped at that alone, as having no other end but to know daily more and more; but the contemplation of the faithful goes farther, and tends to move the will, and to warm and inflame it with the love of God, according to these words of the spouse, “My heart melted with tenderness at the moment my beloved spoke.” (Canticle of Canticles 5:6) St. Thomas understood very well this difference, when, speaking of contemplation, he says, that though it essentially consists in the operations of the understanding, yet it oftentimes receives not its last perfection, but from affectionate motions, and acts of the love of God, produced by the will; so that these acts and motions must be the principal and chief end of contemplation..

This form of prayer, as St. Austin remarks, is taught us in the gospel by Jesus Christ himself, when he warns us “not to speak much in prayer.” (Matthew 6:7) Whereupon the same saint adds, “that to employ ourselves in long discourses is quite a different thing from entertaining ourselves fore long time in affectionate thoughts; and that in prayer we ought, as much as We can, to retrench the one, and let our prayer be always accompanied with the other. Because,” says he, “it is a business that Is better done by sighs than by words.” (Lib. de oran. Deum, c. x.) The delicacy of thought, the force of argument, and the abundance of discourse, are all to little purpose when we treat with God. There are only the desires of the heart, sighs, moans, and tears, that we must employ ourselves in when we treat with him, according to the prophet Jeremias—“Let not the apple of your eye be silent.” (Lamen. ii. 18.) St. Jerom hereupon proposes 4 question to himself, and after having asked how it was possible the apples of our eye should speak, because speaking is the Proper office of the tongue only. ‘ When we pour out our tears,” says he, “before God, then it is that the apples of our eyes speak to him, make themselves understood by him; in like manner, though our mouth utter not a word, yet our heart ceases not to make its cries be heard.” This is what St. Paul explains to us, when, writing to the Galatians, he says, “that God has sent the spirit of his Son, which cries out in our hearts, Father, Father.” (Galatians 4:6) And it is this that God himself gave us to understand when he asked Moses, “Wherefore do you cry to me?” (Exodus 14:15) Though Moses had not so touch as opened his mouth, but instead thereof had made his heart speak to him, praying with so much fervour and efficacy, that God asked him why he cried out in such a manner. It is thus we must raise our voices to God in our prayer—it is thus we must speak to him with our eyes—it is thus “the apple of our eye must not be silent” —and it is thus we must cry out to him with the sighs, tears, sobs, and groans of our hearts.

About ReligiousBookshelf.com · A Supernerd Media project