Volume I, Treatise V, Chapter XXIV

Of the Temptation of Sleep; Whence It Comes; and the Remedies We May Use to Overcome It

An inclination to sleep, which is another kind of distraction, may sometimes proceed from a natural cause; as, from our not having slept enough; from weariness and labour; from the heaviness and dulness of the air or weather; from the infirmity of old age; from excess in eating or drinking, though only of bread and water. At other times it may proceed from the malice of the devil, as is stated by some of the fathers of the desert, who, by God’s permission, saw, in spirit, some devils sitting upon the heads of the religious, to oblige them to sleep; and others putting their fingers in their mouths to make them yawn. And sometimes it proceeds from our own negligence, by putting ourselves or conlinuing in such a posture, whilst we are at prayer, as easily provokes sleep. The chief remedy for this is what I have already spoken of, which is to remember that we are in the presence of God. For as we should not dare to sleep when we are in the presence of some great prince, so, if we consider well that in prayer we are before the infinite majesty of God, who beholds us, we shall be ashamed to sleep. We may help ourselves also with many other remedies, as by standing upright without leaning against anything; to have a wet handkerchief to wipe our eyes with when we find ourselves most oppressed with drowsiness; to look now and then towards heaven; to hold a lighted candle in our hand; to make our prayer amongst others before the blessed sacrament; and, lastly, to take a discipline before we go to prayer, or to do some other thing that is painful during prayer itself, as to hold our arms across when we are alone. We shall also find great helps against sleep by reciting vocal prayers, as I have said elsewhere. Yet in helping ourselves by these, or other such like remedies, we must not neglect to beg God’s assistance also, and that he would cure us of this infirmity.

Cesarius, in his dialogues, says that a Cistercian monk being very subject to sleep in his prayer, our Saviour one time appeared to him, nailed to his cross, with his back towards him, and said thus—“Because you are tepid and drowsy you deserve not to see my face.” He makes mention in the same place of another religious that was treated more severely. For falling asleep in the choir, as he was wont to do, the crucifix upon the altar unfastened itself from the cross, and flying to him, gave him such a stroke on the ear, that the third day after he died of it (Ces. lib. iv. Dialog. c. 29 and 38): all of which gives us sufficiently to understand how much this laziness and tepidity displease God. The lazy and tepid religious, says the same author, provokes God to vomit, according to the words of the Apocalypse, “Because you are tepid, I begin to vomit you out,” (Apocalypse 3:16)

Peter Damian, speaking of that practice which St. Romuald, founder of the Camalduli, caused his religious to observe in prayer, says that it was a great fault in the opinion of this saint to sleep during that time, and he permitted no one who had fallen asleep in time of it to say mass that day, because of the little respect he had kept in his Master’s presence, whom he was to receive.

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