Volume I, Treatise VIII, Chapter XXVI

How We May Convert Aridities and Desolations into a Good Profitable Prayer

IT is not enough that we make no complaint of the aridities and desolations, but we must endeavour to profit by them, and to convert them into an excellent prayer. And the first thing that will help us to do this, is to address ourselves to God, and say to him; Lord, inasmuch as this aridity proceeds from my fault or negligence, I am truly sorry, and troubled for the cause I have given of it, but inasmuch as it is your holy will, and a just pain and punishment which my sins have merited, I accept it with all my heart, and not only submit to this cross, and embrace it for the present, but even to the end of my life, giving you infinite thanks for it. This spirit of patience, humility, and resignation to the will of God is infinitely more pleasing to him, than those complaints and disquiets which proceed from the difficulties we find in prayer, and from the multiplicity of distractions we meet with therein. Which of his two sons do you think a father would love better; him who is contented with whatsoever he shall bestow upon him, or the other, who is contented with nothing that he gives him, but murmurs and complains continually, and thinks all that he gives him too little in comparison of what he thinks he deserves? It is not to be doubted but you will say the first is more pleasing to him. It is the same with us in regard of God. We are all his children; he who is of a peaceable and complying humour, and conforms himself in all things to the will of his heavenly Father, and is content with whatsoever he sends him, how hard and troublesome soever, pleases God far more than the other who is so hard to be pleased, and does nothing else but murmur and complain because what is given him is not to his liking. Moreover, which of the two beggars do you think makes better use of what is given him, or more excites charity and compassion; he who grumbles at the gate, because he receives not presently an answer, or because nothing is given him; or the other, who stays patiently at the door, after he knows they hear him, without farther importunity, and without making any complaint waits with patience in the cold and rain to see whether they will bestow anything upon him? It is very certain that the humility of the latter inspires feelings of pity and compassion; and the pride of the former excites motions of anger and indignation. The same thing happens between God and us.

But that we may better know the excellency and profit of this kind of prayer, and how pleasing it is to God, I ask, what greater fruit can be reaped from prayer than that of great patience in afflictions, of an entire conformity to the divine will, and of an extreme love of God? Is not this what we ought to propose to ourselves in prayer? This being so, when therefore God shall send you dryness and desolation in prayer, conform yourself to his will in this spiritual dereliction, in which he leaves you, and this will be one of the greatest acts of patience and of the love of God, which it is possible for you to perform. Nothing shows more clearly the excess of our love than the greatness of pain and labour which we bear for the sake of the beloved. But it is certain that the aridities and derelictions of which we speak, are the greatest sufferings, most sensible mortifications, and the most painful crosses of the true servants of God. For all temporal afflictions that regard our goods, health, or reputation, are nothing compared to them. So that to conform ourselves in these entirely to the will of God, by imitating Jesus Christ in that dereliction he found upon the cross; and to accept purely from the sole desire of pleasing God so great a cross as this, during our whole lives, is certainly one of the greatest acts of patience and of the love of God; a sort of most sublime and profitable prayer, and an effect of the most consummate perfection. There is so much virtue and merit herein, that those who thus submit themselves tothese afflictionsare styled by some the greatest of martyrs.

Moreover, why do you betake yourself to prayer but to obtain a profound humility, and an entire knowledge of yourself? How often have you begged of God that he would let you see how iniserable a creature you are? And behold he gives you a sight and knowledge of this, by means of these aridities and disgusts. Some think the knowledge of themselves consists in having a great sorrow and regret for their sins, and in bitterly deploring them. But they are deceived; for this compunction is from God, and not from themselves, and consequently it is God, not themselves, they come to know thereby. That which is purely from yourself, is that hardness of heart, such an insensibility, as is like a rock from which a drop of water cannot issue unless God strikes it. It is in this the knowledge of ourselves consists, and consequently this is the source of all happiness, which you may very easily gain amidst those aridities you complain of; so that if you do but reap this fruit from your prayer, your prayer will) become most profitable.

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