Volume I, Treatise V, Chapter XVI

Of the Means of Exercising Ourselves a Long While in Prayer Upon the Same Subject; and of a Very Profitable Manner or Form of Prayer Which Is Made by Our Descending to Particulars

Havine shown that it is very profitable in prayer to dwell a long while upon interior acts of the same virtue, it remains that we point out the means requisite for effecting this. The most common, and what is ordinarily assigned, is to reproduce the same act in our heart, whether it be by helping ourselves with the first consideration that moved us to form it (as a man, by repeated strokes upon a wheel that hangs in the air upon its axletree, continues and augments its circular motion), and exciting ourselves by those words of the Prophet: ‘“My soul return to thy repose, by remembering the benefits thou hast received of our Lord” (Psalms 114:7); or by adding some other consideration to the first, when itis not sufficient to move us any longer—which is like casting fresh fuel upon the fire when we would preserve it from going out, But if, after all this, we feel not ourselves sufficiently excited, we must pass to another point; for we must always have several points in readiness, in order when we have so much exhausted one, that we find nothing more in it to inflame our will, we may pass to another that is better able to awake and stir up the motions of our understanding, and carry our thoughts to what we chiefly desire and aim at. Moreover, when we would avoid the disgust we find in feeding constantly upon the same meat, we are accustomed to dress and season it after a different manner, which renders it as it were new, and that to excite in ourselves a new appetite; so also to be able to dwell for a long time upon the same subject in prayer, which is the true food and nourishment of our soul, there is no better way than to season it after a different manner, by thinking of another consideration, or else upon some other point, as we have said before. So that aa often as by any reflection different from the first, we produce the same act, it is as it were a different kind of seasoning that renders the thing in a manner new. We may also, without making use of any new reflection, vary the interior act of virtue different ways; as for example, if we would exercise ourselves upon humility, we may sometimes dwell upon the consideration and knowledge of our misery and weakness, and there find an ample subject of confusion and humiliation. Sometimes we may employ ourselves in desiring the contempt of men, considering that the esteem of the world is only mere vanity and smoke, and consequently we must make no account of it; sometimes we may conceive a wholesome shame and confusion for faults we find ourselves daily guilty of, and ask God’s pardon, and beg a remedy for them. Sometimes we may enter into an admiration of the divine goodness, which tolerates us, notwithstanding all our imperfections, when frequently we are scarce able to tolerate or bear with ourselves; and, lastly, we may sometimes employ ourselves in giving him thanks that he has not permitted us to fall into greater faults. By this variety we avoid the disgust which the continuation of the same act ordinarily occasions; and the perseverance in the desire and exercise of the same virtue, becoming thus easy and pleasant, our hearts by this means will be more deeply penetrated therewith, and this virtue will take deeper root. For as every time the file goes over the iron, it takes something with it, so also every time we make an act of humility, or of any other virtue, wealwaysdiminish something of the contrary vice.

There is, besides this, another means to persevere many days in prayer upon the same subject; which means is both very ¢easy and profitable, and consists in descending to several particulars of the things we meditate on. It is not sufficient, as all masters of a spiritual life tell us, to form in prayer a weak and wandering desire, or a general resolution to serve God—to make progress in virtue, and to render ourselves perfect; but we must, moreover, descend to the particulars of those things we know are most pleasing to God. Nor is it sufficient to conceive a desire in general of any virtue in particular, as of obedience, humility, patience, or mortification, as this sort of general desire, or rather velleity, is formed in the hearts of even the most vicious persons. For virtue being a thing pleasant, honourable, and also most profitable, as well for this life as for the next, it is an easy thing to love it, or thus to desire it in general; but this is not enough— together with this we must enter into a detail of the particular circumstances which bear any relation to the very virtue we wish to acquire. If, for example, we propose to ourselves the gaining a perfect conformity to the will of God, we must set before us the different situations in which we may happen to find ourselves. We must look upon sickness as well as health; the time of temptation as well as of comfort, and life as well as death, with an entire resignation to the divine will. If we wish to acquire humility, we must in like manner descend to particulars, representing to ourselves those things in which we may have any occasion of exercising humility; and it is the same with respect to all the other virtues. Because it is particular facts which most of all touch and move us; it is in these what is most difficult in ’ virtue consists; it is by these virtue is not only proved but acquired. The method we are to observe herein is, in the begin-ing to propose to ourselves such examples and practices as are easy, and afterwards to image to ourselves such as are more hard and difficult, and then to image to ourselves such as are the most difficult of all; and when we think we have mastered all these, we must endeavour after this manner stil] to raise ourselves by little and little, never ceasing to make one act after another, just as if the occasions had actually presented themselves, till there is nothing that opposes itself to our design, and till we have resisted and overcome all our difficulties with 50 much vigour that at last we become masters of the field. But if afterwards any new occasions offer themselves, we must also exercise ourselves in these, and excite ourselves to support them with patience, and make our profit of them. A certain servant of God, moreover, adds, that we must in prayer purpose to practi something of this kind each day; so true it is, that, in what concerns our perfection, we cannot descend too much to particulars. Without doubt, this is one of the most profitable things in which we can exercise ourselves in time of prayer. For prayer, as we have said, ought to be practical: that is to say, it ought always tend to the practice of the virtue we aspire to; and it ought to smooth the difficulties we meet with in the practice of it. And for this purpose, it is requisite that we try and exercise ourselves beforehand, like soldiers who are trained in time of peace, that they may be able to surmount the difficulties they meet in time of war. Cassian also particularly recommends this method..And even Seneca and Plutarch declare that the weak are the only persons who feel not how much the ills and afflictions of life are sweetened by often thinking upon them beforehand. It is very profitable, say they, often to fix our thoughts upon things that are hard and difficult; for as a man who employs his thoughts only upon those things that are pleasant, contracts a certain effeminacy, that makes him afraid of any pain or labour, and therefore loses courage on the last occasion that presents itself; so he who is accustomed to propose to himself the pains of sickness, exile, prisons, and all other adversities that can happen in this life, will be the better prepared to bear them whenever they shall happen, and will experience that all these things cause a great deal more fear and apprehension in the beginning than they can do hurt in the end. “The darts we perceive afar off,” says St. Gregory, “hurt us far less than others” (Greg. Hom. xxxv. sup. Evang.); the evil is, in a manner, half overcome when we have foreseen it; the enemies that surprise us fright us far more than those we courageously wait for.

We read in the Life of St. Ignatius a thing very pertinent to this subject. He happened to be sick, and the physician having forbidden him to do anything that might give him any trouble of mind, or to dwell on any uneasy or disquieting thoughts, this circumstance Jed him to think with himself what accident could happen that was capable of afflicting him, or of disturbing the peace of his mind. After having cast his thoughts upon several, he found that the object most dear to his heart was the conservation of the society which he had but newly established, and that the dissolution thereof was the only thing that could give him any pain or trouble. He afterwards went on to examine himself how long this affliction would last, in case such a thing should happen; and it seemed to him, provided it happened not through his fault, he would require but a quarter of an hour’s recollection and prayer, to free himself from all the trouble that this would

give him, and to restore to his mind the peace and tranquillity it had before enjoyed. He added, moreover, that he should preserve the same joy and quiet, even though the society should come to be dissolved as complete as salt is in water. Behold here a most happy and most profitable manner of praying.

“Ts there any one of you afflicted?” says the apostle St. James, ‘let him have recourse to prayer” (James 5:13); it is there we find a comfort and a remedy for all evils; and this was what the Royal Prophet practised when he felt himself oppressed with any interior affliction or desolation: “My soul,” says he, “refused to be comforted, I thought upon God, and I was delighted in him.” (Psalms 76:4) This is God’s will, it is he that will have it thus, and this is enough for me; because I ought to have no other will, nor desire any other pleasure than his. Now if, in time of afilictions, prayer efficaciously assists us to bear them, and to derive advantage from them; it is also an admirable preparative to render us more ready and better disposed to receive them. St. Chrysostom says, that one of the chief causes why Job remained so constant and patient in all his adversities and sufferings was, that he had, in the manner described, prepared himself for them—representing them often to his mind, and making acts of resignation, as if these afflictions were very likely to happen to him. Job himself informs us of this in the following words: “The fear I had is truly fallen upon me, and that which I feared has happened unto me.” (Job, iil. 25.) But if you have not taken this salutary precaution, and if the bare representation of bad and troublesome accidents shock you at present, what will real afflictions do when they happen?_ If whilst you are in prayer, and remote from any occasion, you feel not courage and vigour enough to accept of an humble and painful employment, or to suffer any contempt, what will you be able to do out of prayér, when deprived of that help which those reflections upon the example of Jesus Christ impart, and when you find yourself amidst the obstacles and difficulties which attend on the occasion? And if, after having very great fervour in your prayer, you should afterwards, when the occasion happens, fail to execute your good purposes, what would you have done had you not been. at all prepared for them, and if in prayer you had not had this fervour? “If he who makes good resolutions,” says Thomas 4 Kempis, “‘ happens, notwithstanding, to fall, what will he do who makes none at all, or makes them very tepidly?”

I have here furnished you with most ample and sufficient matter, to dwell a long time upon the same subject in prayer, and upon the same act of virtue. For the particular cases that may happen are numberless, and we must labour very hard, before we shall be able to resist all. But when you shall proceed so far as to find in yourself, as you imagine, sufficient strength to support with joy all that can happen to you, think not that you have gained the point, and that all is done. You are far from it; for there isa great difference between saying and doing; and there are far more pains required to execute, than to resolve. In the action, the object is present, and acts by itself; whereas the purpose has no force but what it borrows from the imagination. Hence it happens, that we very often feel ourselves so zealous and fervent in prayer, that we think nothing can be able to shake or move us; and yet when the first occasion presents itself, and when we come to execute our good purposes, we experience to our shame and confusion, that we are far from being what we presumed and thought we had been. It is not sufficient then, that you feel in yourself these good desires, but you must endeavour that these desires become efficacious, and that they be put in execution. For action is the true proof or trial of virtue; and if you perceive your actions correspond not with the resolutions you have made, but that, on the contrary, you find yourself in the occasion far from what you thought yourself in prayer; be truly confounded, that you have nothing else but weak and simple desires of what is good, or to say better, that they are no true desires at all, but only vain and flying imaginations; because when the least occasion gives you any trouble, you lose courage, and shamefully give way and fall back. Imitate the smith, who, when the piece of iron he forges fails the first time, puts it into the fire a second time, in order to forge it again and give it a better form. Put, therefore, these imperfect desires again into the fire of prayer, and there endeavour to tender them efficacious, and do not give over till your actions are conformable to your purposes, and till there remains nothing which can render you wavering or inconstant in their execution.

But even after you have gained thus much over yourself, and you think you behave as you ought upon all occasions, be not persuaded that there remains nothing else for you todo. For in the action itself there is a great many degrees of perfection that you must endeavour to compass. First, you must support all things with patience: “Suffer with patience at least,” says a holy man, “if you cannot suffer with joy.” Behold the first degree of virtue, it will cost you some time and labour before you come to this, and when you are arrived thus far, you have still a considerable progress to make, before you attain perfection. For as the philosophers say very well, the true sign that we have gained any virtue in its perfection is, readily, easily, and with pleasure to produce its acts. See, therefore, whether you practise humility, poverty of spirit, patience, and other virtues, with this readiness, facility, and pleasure; and thus you will know if you truly possess the virtue. See, according to the rule, which the gospel, as well as St. Ignatius prescribes, to examine yourself by; whether contempt and reproaches impart as much joy and satisfaction to you, as praises and honours give unto worldly persons? Whether, in want of all conveniences of this life, you are as well pleased and content, as the covetous man is amidst his riches, and plenty of all things? Whether the mortification you suffer be as pleasing to you as ease and pleasure, are to worldings? Now if, in the practice of each virtue, we must endeavour to raise ourselves to this height of perfection, we shall have matter enough to employ ourselves in during our whole lives; since, in one virtue alone, we find sufficient employment not only for many days but even for many years.

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