Volume I, Treatise V, Chapter XXV

That Besides the Ordinary Times Allotted for Prayer, It Is Very Convenient to Take Some Other Time to Apply Ourselves Thereunto

As secular persons, besides the ordinary meals they take every day for refection of their body, sometimes solace themselves also by-particular feasts, wherein they have better cheer than ordinary, so it is very just that besides the ordinary time we daily employ in prayer, which is the food and nourishment of our souls, we should sometimes make spiritual feasts and banquets, in which the soul, taking more than its wonted allowance upon ordinary days, may fully satisfy itself with the abundant sweetness of God’s graces and favours. Nature also teaches us this practice; for we see that, besides the dew that falls every night, it sometimes rains whole weeks together without intermission, that the earth, being well watered to the very bottom, neither the greatest heats nor the most violent winds might be able to dry it up. We must, therefore, according to this example, make choice of some particular times, in which, besides the dew which we procure for the soul by our ordinary prayer, we may also procure for it such large showers and effusions of many graces, that neither our exterior occupations nor the winds of temptations may ever be able to dry it up. This has been the practice of many saints and holy prelates of the Church, who, laying aside their affairs and occupations for a time, gave themselves more freely to prayer and contemplation. And we read that St. Arsenius was wont every Saturday to remain in prayer from the evening till the next morning.

But this practice is not only of great importance for our spiritual advancement, but also hinders us from falling back; because the frailty of man is so very great, and the inclinations we have to evil so powerful, that though we sometimes begin our spiritual exercises with a great deal of zeal and fervour, yet we soon, by little and little, come to relent therein, and to lose our first fervour;. for we return to our first tepidity and natural remissness as easily as warm water returns to its first state of coldness after we have taken it off the fire, “For the mind of man,” as the Scripture says, “is inclined to evil from its youth” (Genesis 8:21); “and is like a perverse “nation, to which malice has become natural.” (Wisdom 12:10) Let us add to this, that being employed as we are, some in studies, others in domestic employments, and others in exercises and functions abroad, we have need to recollect ourselves sometimes by

i retirement, it being an axiom amongst philosophers, “that every agent suffers by its action;” so that, though our employments are good and holy, yet, as a knife grows blunt by daily use, and requires that it should be sharpened from time to time, so we grow dull by our continual action, and relent in the care of our own advancement by labouring to procure that of our neighbour. Therefore it is of very great importance to make now and then a retreat, whereby, disengaging ourselves from all sorts of employments, we give leisure to our soul to recover her impaired strength, and regain new vigour to be able to continue in action; for we are more obliged to ourselves than to our neighbour, and well-regulated charity begins at home.

But it is also for our neighbour’s advantage that we do this; since their progress depends upon the progress of those who are employed in the salvation of souls; and, therefore, it is so far from being a loss to our neighbour to take time for ourselves, that even he receives profit thereby. It is like the letting land lie fallow for a year, that afterwards it may become more fertile; or to use father Avila’s comparison, it is like the taking off the millstone to pick it anew, thereby to make it grind the better. Our occupations, then, are so far from being a legitimate excuse, to dispense with ourselves sometimes from these retreats, that, on the contrary, the more we are employed and busied in affairs, the more we stand in need of having recourse to the ordinary remedy and help of prayer and recollection. Those who travel by sea must from. time to time go ashore to lay in fresh provisions; and in the same manner, those who are embarked in exterior employments, for the salvation of their neighbour, and who are continually encompassed with so many dangers, as the sea of this world is full of, have reason oftentimes to go ashore, and enter the harbour of solitude and recollection, to furnish themselves with fresh spiritual supplies, and thereby make provision of what is necessary for the continuation of their voyage. The gospel affords us an excellent example of this. Jesus Christ had sent his apostles to several places to preach; and when they returned from missions, and had given account of them to the Son of God, he says. to them, “‘ Come aside to a place of solitude, and there repose and rest yourselves for @ while.” (Mark 6:31) If the Saviour of the world gave this counsel to his apostles; aud if such persons as these wanted repose and retirement, with how far greater reason ought we to believe, that we stand in need thereof?

Those who have written of prayer say very well, that it is to the soul, what sleep is to the body; and even in the Scripture itself, it is styled a sleep. “I sleep, but my heart watches.” (Canticle of Canticles 5:2) “Ye daughters of Jerusalem, I conjure you not to awake my beloved, till she pleases to awake of herself.” (Canticle of Canticles 8:4) And the better to explain this comparison, he says, as the body reposes and gathers new strength by sleep, so the soul reposes in prayer, and gathers thereby new vigour to serve God; and as without sleep, though we should take the most exquisite food in the world, we should notwithstanding grow weaker, and be in danger of losing our senses; so without this spiritual sleep of prayer, how holy soever our exterior employments are, the soul would become weak and sickly, and would even be in danger of being lost. It is for this reason that the spouse would not have his beloved wakened out of her sleep till she pleased; for it is very troublesome to be wakened by any noise; but very pleasant to wake of ourselves, after our bodies have taken all the repose they stood in need of, and that all the vapours that mounted to the head are quite dissipated and spent. God therefore would have no exterior thing disturb or awake our soul, when she reposes in prayer,’ but that she should awake of herself, when she has sufficiently reposed; and she should exercise herself also in charitable employments; because she is then far fitter for them than she was before. Though, generally speaking, it is at any time whatsoever of great importance to apply ourselves to prayer, which we cannot do too often, yet there are some occasions and conjunctures in which it is particularly necessary that we should employ ourselves in it. When, for example, we perceive that we begin to relent in our spiritual duties, and reap not such fruit from them as we ought to do; when we perceive that we are not as truly observant of our rules as we were wont to be, and set little or no value on small things; when we find we have not sufficient interior recollection, and we are too much dissipated in the exterior, and too much taken up with affairs, into the management whereof we have intruded ourselves. It is good also to make a retreat for some days, when we perceive we cannot entirely overcome ourselves in some things, that we may endeavour to compass by prayer, what otherwise we could not effect. Because then it may happen, that in a happy moment we shall obtain more grace of God, and more strength to mortify and overcome ourselves, than we should have been able to do in many days, by the practice of our ordinary exercises. For then we would have employed a long time only in falling and getting up again; but by the help of a few days’ retreat, it will happen upon a sudden, that we shall feel ourselves disabused of our errors, confirmed in our good purposes, and absolutely resolved to change our lives. For after all, it is not to be doubted, but that to be sometimes alone, and to confer with God and ourselves, is a very good disposition to obtain of him to speak to our hearts, and to move him to bestow plentiful grace upon us. ‘“‘ The solitary person shall sit and keep silence,” says the prophet, “because he is raised above himself.” (Lamen. iii. 28.) By the help of a retreat, then, we elevate ourselves above ourselves, and become quite other men than we were before. And, hereby, very extraordinary changes have often happened: ‘“The hand of God is not shortened” (Isa. lix. 1)—his power is not at all diminished; wherefore we must never lose courage nor neglect anything we are able to do. How do you know but that God may work great things in you in time of this retreat? Perhaps it is to some one of those exercises during that time to which he has united your progress in perfection. Moreover, it is not less necessary, for the happy state of your soul, thus to retire after a long journey, or some great and distracting employments, than ‘it is necessary for our corporal health, and for the regaining strength, to treat ourselves with more than ordinary care, after we have been exhausted by a long sickness. It is good, also, for the same reason, when we are about to engage ourselves in any great employments, to take our precautions in this manner, that we may afterwards perform our actions with more purity of mind, and defile ourselves less with the commerce and traffic of the world. The medicines that prevent diseases are better than those that cure them: and it was upon this account that St. Ignatius recommended to all superiors, that before they took their charge upon them, they should make eight days’ retreat, to exercise themselves for that time in spiritual things. It is also very much to the purpose to do the same, when we are upon the point of being employed in any long mission, of which Jesus Christ himself has given us an example; who, before he began to preach, retired forty days together in the desert. The time of affliction, also, is very proper. for a retreat; as well when the affliction regards ourselves in particular, as when it regards the society, or the whole Church in general. For it is an ordinary practice in the Church, to have recourse to prayer, penance, and mortification, for the appeasing God’s wrath, and the obtaining his mercy and particular favours. All these occurrences may give us occasion to recollect ourselves in a retreat of some days. But is it not necessary to seek occasions? No! our own necessities, and our own interest also, furnish us with sufficient. Wherefore, we ought not to pass a year without making such a spiritual retreat; and when we undertake it, we must perform it to the purpose; that is, with a firm purpose to profit by it. For a matter of so great importance. ought never to.be made superficially, through custom, or condescension.

In fine, God has given this means particularly to the society, not only as a thing very proper for our own advancement in virtue, but also for the advancement of our neighbour. It is in this manner that the bulls of our institute speak; and St. Ignatius very particularly recommends it to the priests; “to the end,” says he, “that thereby they make themselves skilful in the management of these sorts of spiritual arms, which, by the special grace of God, are so proper to gain souls to his service.” (4 p. Const. c. viii. § 5. Reg. 7. Sacerd.) It was by this means that God drew to himself our blessed founder, and his companions; and it is by this means, also, that he will draw many others after the same example, and we have seen most wonderful effects of his holy grace in those he has conducted by these means; and we must hope that by our making use of the same he will give us the like assistance, and pour down the same blessings upon us.

I add to what I have already said, another thing still very considerable, which ought strongly to excite us to make use of these exercises. It is the favour which Paul V. has granted to all religious in general, in his bull, published in the year 1606, the 23rd of May—in which he grants a plenary indulgence and remission of all sins to those of any order whatsoever, who shall retire for eight or ten days to make the spiritual exercises. This evinces the esteem this great Pope had of them—an esteem, which we ought also to have. And that the whole world may be the better informed by the very words of the said bull, I shall here insert them:—‘As to those who by the permission of their superiors, quitting their present affairs, and retiring for ten days in their cells, or in any other place, free from the commerce and conversation of men, shall employ themselves, during this time, in the reading of holy books, and in other spiritual exercises, to excite their hearts to piety and devotion; adding, at the same time, meditations upon the mysteries of our holy faith, upon the benefits received from God, upon the four ends of man, upon the Passion of our Saviour, or any other prayers, either ejaculatory or vocal, and applying themselves at least two hours a-day in mental prayer; and after having at the same time made a general confession of their whole life, or of the year past, or only an ordinary confession, shall receive the holy sacrament of the Eucharist,.or shall celebrate mass; every time that they shall make these exercises, we mercifully in our Lord grant them a plenary indulgence, or a remission of all their sins.”

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