Volume I, Treatise V, Chapter XIV

Two Advertisements, Which May Considerably Help Us to Make Our

Prayer well, and to derive great Advantage from u.

To make our prayer well, and to derive from it the benefit that we ought, it will be extremely profitable to us first to be assured that prayer is not the chief end we propose to ourselves in a spiritual life, but only a means and help we make use of to advance ourselves in perfection. We must not confine ourselves to prayer as to the end in which we are to repose. For our perfection consists not in consolations and sweetnesses of contemplation, but in acquiring a perfect mortification of sense—in obtaining a victory over ourselves—in surmounting our passions and appetites, and re-establishing ourselves as much as it is possible in the happy state of original justice wherein we are all. created in the person of our first father Adam. For then the flesh and concupiscence were subject to reason, and reason was entirely subject and conformable to God. And it is to attain this so elevated an end, that we must help ourselves by prayer as @ means most proper and profitable. Though iron is

ard, yet fire softens it and renders it fit for any use we please. Prayer works the same effect upon our heart, which being naturally hard, has a repugnance to mortification and contempt, and feels it very difficult to submit to the will of another. We must, then, have recourse to prayer to overcome this hardness, and by the fire and heat of devotion, and the example of Jesus Christ, our heart will become so soft and pliable that we may afterwards very easily manage it, and form it to whatsoever shall be necessary for God’s greater glory and service. See what prayer ought to work in us; behold the advantage we must derive from it. And as to those sweetnesses and interior consolations we sometimes receive from God therein, he does not send them that we may repose in them, but he gives them that thereby we may become more ready and ardent to run on in the way of virtue and perfection.

It is this the Holy Ghost would give us to understand by what happened to Moses descending from the mountain, where he conversed with God. The holy text says, that coming down, his face was resplendent with rays of light; and this light was formed into the shape of horns. For, as in Scripture, horns are a symbol of strength, so the Holy Ghost would thereby intimate to us, that we must rise from prayer with additional strength and activity. The Son of God also has taught us this by his own example, on the night of his passion. He put himself three times in prayer, to prepare himself for the sufferings which awaited him; and as soon as he had ended it, he said to his disciples; “Arise, let us go, he who betrays me is at hand.” (Mat. xxvi. 46.) He himself offers and delivers up himself into the hands of his enemies. ‘‘ He was offered, because it was his pleasure.” (Isai. hii. 7.) Yet it was not, as St. Ambrose well observes, because he wanted either preparation or succour that he prayed, but because he would teach us, by his example, to recur to prayer as a most proper means to surmount all difficulties that occur in the way of virtue. St. Chrysostom compares our heart to an instrument of music, and says, that prayer tunes all the notes, to elicit thence an harmony very agreeable to God. In effect what we must propose to ourselves in prayer is, so to regulate all the motions of our heart, and all our actions and passions, that they may accord very well with reason, and with God. Wherefore we are every day admonished, in these exhortations that are made to us, that our prayer should be practical; that is to say, that it tend to the regulating of our life, the lessening difficulties, and removing the obstacles we shall meet with in a spiritual life. The Holy Ghost also gives the name of “wisdom to the science of saints” (Proverbs 9:10); which is nothing else than prayer; because prudence teaches us to regulate our actions; whereas human science terminates in the simple knowledge of objects.

Theodoret, in his Religious History, relates of a holy anchoret, who was wont to say, that physicians ordinarily treat each corporal disease with a particular and proper remedy; and frequently apply many remedies to the cure of one disease; because all medicines are weak, and have only. a limited virtue in them: but that prayer is an universal remedy, and is very efficacious in all our necessities—that it is fit to repel and resist the attacks of the devil, and to gain all the virtues; so that to all the evils of the soul it applies an infinite good, which is God himself; from whom if borrows all its force and power. They also call it omnipotent; and it is a good title; because it is in effect a sovereign remedy, which the Saviour of the world has given us against all sorts of temptations. ‘Watch and pray,’ says he, “that ye enter not into temptation.” (Mat. xxvi. 41.)

The second advertisement which will help us to reduce the former to practice is, that as before we put ourselves in prayer, we should know the points upon which we are to meditate; so we must also know the fruit we are to reap from it. But some may say, how shall we know beforehand what benefit to derive from the prayer we are about to make? This proposition requires to be explained; which I shall endeavour to do, and render it as intelligible as I can. Have I not just now said that when we have recourse to prayer, it is to find out a remedy for our spiritual infirmities, and to gain the victory over ourselves, and over our passions and bad habits; and that prayer is a means we adopt, in order to amend and reform our lives? This being so, we must consider for some time before we begin our prayer; and ask ourselves what is the greatest spiritual infirmity I have? What is the obstacle that most opposes itself to my progress in virtue? And what enemies make the most open war against my soul? Let every one set this before his eyes; let him beforehand call it to mind, that afterwards he may in his prayer, with greater fervour and earnestness, request some necess remedy for this evil, wherewith he is molested; and let all the preparation he makes for the disposing the points of his meditation be directed to thisend only. You are, for example, tempted by an irregular desire of the esteem and praises of men; and this renders you so very sensible to the least appearance of contempt, that sometimes you cannot forbear to let your resentment appear exteriorly. You perceive it is this which more violently wages war against you, and is the greatest obstacle and hindrance to your spiritual advancement—that it is this which most of all hinders the peace and quiet of your mind; and in fine this is what occasions your falling into your most considerable faults and imperfections. Since you know that this is your greatest fault, it is to overcome and root out this, that you must chiefly apply yourself; and consequently this is the fruit you must propose to yourself to reap from your prayer; this is what you must always have before your eyes, and what you must insist on most constantly and earnestly.

Those, then, deceive themselves exceedingly, who think not upon what most imports them; but, like a hunter that shoots always at random, go to prayer without any fixed desire to profit of what the Holy Ghost shall put into their minds. We go not to prayer to take all that comes to hand, but we go to find what is most necessary for us; and to imitate the sick man who goes not to the apothecary’s to take what drugs come next; but to seek those he stands most in need of. One is puffed up with pride and vanity; another boils with anger and impatience; a third abounds in his own sense, being tied to his own will and opinion; every day we find ourselves guilty of faults, and yet in prayer we entertain ourselves with far-fetched speculations, and subtile reflections, taking hold of the first pleasing thing that presents itself; and, without directly stopping or fixing upon anything, let our minds wander to and-fro on things which are not to the purpose. This is not the way to profit. We must continually think upon that which principally requires reformation in us, and endeavour to remedy it by prayer, since prayer was established for this end. St. Ephrem applies very well to this subject the example of the blind man in the gospel, who had recourse to Jesus Christ, crying out, and begging that he would take pity on him. Consider, says he, that our Saviour having asked him what he would have, the man presently mentions to him his greatest misery, which was his blindness, and said—“Lord, grant me my sight.” (Luke 18:41) He asked him for nothing else that he wanted; he mentioned not his poverty, his want of clothes, or anything else; but, not alluding to any of these, he thought only upon what was most pressing. It is after this manner, continues this great saint, that we must behave ourselves in prayer; we must regard that which we stand most in need of, and insist and persevere in our importunity till we have obtained it.

But to anticipate a difficulty which may be made, it is proper to observe, that though it be true, that to excite ourselves to a love of those particular virtues we stand most in need of, we must try whether the matter, and points we have chosen to meditate upon, be such as they ought to be, to move our will to produce fervorous acts; nevertheless, we may also affirm with truth, that any mystery or point we take for our meditation, may equally be applied to all sorts of necessities. For prayer is like the heavenly manna, that has that taste which each one desires. If you would find sentiments of humility, you will meet with them in the considerations you shall make upon sin, death, hell, the Passion of the Son of God, and upon the benefits you have thereby received. If you would excite in yourself a lively sorrow and extreme confusion for your faults, each one of these points will also conduce to this effect. If you would gain the spirit of sweetness and patience, they will, in the same manner, serve for the obtaining them. In fine, whatsoever you would seek in prayer, you will always infallibly find it therein.

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