how is the apostolic worker to become an instrument united to God? By prayer, in which he is accustomed to converse with God as a child with its father, seeking not his own glory but God's, doing not his own will but God's; trusting not in his own strength but in God, the Almighty and the All-Bountiful.
In order to teach us this lesson by His own example, Our Lord prepared Himself for his apostolic life by forty days' prayer in the Desert and, when about to redeem the world on Calvary, He willed to spend the night in prayer in the garden of Gethsemani.
Since that time, nothing great has been done in the Church without prayer. Those specially chosen by God as His instruments have become united to the Divine Worker only through prolonged prayer. At the end of ten days' prayer with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in the Upper Room, the Apostle saw the Holy Ghost descend in the form of fiery tongues, transforming them from men weak and worldly, into the men, filled with heavenly virtue, who converted the world.
PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER
Since the Divine mission of the Apostles, nothing has taken place in the Church of greater importance than the foundation of the Religious Orders; a close union, then, was necessary between those taking part in this great work and God, and the union was brought about by prolonged prayer made in solitude and often lasting several years. The cave of Subiaco, the many sanc- tuaries where St. Dominic was rapt in ecstasy, the rocky heights of Mount Alvernus, the solitude of Clairvaux, the grotto of Man- resa tell us in what school God was so long fashioning the great founders, Benedict, Dominic, Francis, Bernard and Ignatius.
The triumphs of the Christian apostolate are still one of the great wonders of the Church's history, and there is nothing more illustrious than the names of St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Francis Xavier, St. Francis of Sales, St. John Francis Regis, St. Leonard of Port-Maurice, St. Alphonsus Ligouri. Now, all these great apostles of souls were men of great prayer. Let us imitate them, as far as grace is given us, and we shall become true apostles, producing lasting fruit in the salvation of souls.
PART II
The Principal Arts of Prayer
CHAPTER I
PREPARATION FOR PRAYER
PRAYER is a Divine work, and therefore the Holy Ghost is the most perfect teacher of how it may be well made.
Nevertheless, God demands the co-opera- tion of the soul, whose first care must be to prepare itself for this great act. By omitting the preparation, or by making it in a careless manner, the soul tempts God. As the Book of Ecclesiasticus says: ''Before prayer pre- pare thy soul: and be not as a man that tempteth God." 1
A good preparation consists, first, in purify- ing the intention arid disregarding the presence or absence of spiritual consolation, which will be wanting, perhaps, even in spite of a solid preparation. What does it matter? Meditation is not made in order that the joys of heaven may be found in it but because it is a means of glorifying God and sanctify- ing our soul. This view of it will prevent
1 Ecclus. 18: 23.
PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER
deception, disastrous to progress in prayer and virtue alike, and draw down God's blessings in abundance on our prayer.
Once we are indifferent to sensible favors and resigned to God's holy Will, we must choose the subject of our meditation! ''Al- though in itself," says St. Ignatius, ''the third consideration, that of the Divine Per- sons, is more perfect than the second, that of the mysteries connected with Our Lord, and the second more perfect than the first, namely, the consideration of our sins, yet by far the best plan for each individual is to choose that consideration in which God, Our Lord, communicates Himself most freely to the soul, sharing with it His most holy gifts and spiritual graces; for He knows and sees what is most suitable to each, and knowing all, points out the road which each ought to follow."1
And yet the three subjects just mentioned should not be chosen to the exclusion of all others, for in every meditation there are three beings of whom we must never lose sight: The first is God, the Sovereign Lord of all things. Who on account of His infinite
1 Borgia p. 268; Lettre 58, a St. Frànçois.
PRINCIPAL ACTS OF PRAYER
perfections is worthy of boundless love and respect. For how can we treat with Him of what concerns His glory and the interests of our soul if we lose sight of what He is, His power and what He wants to do for us?
The second being is Jesus Christ, our divine Redeemer, who is in truth our Mediator, our Physician, our Master, our only Road to Heaven; in a word He is, in prayer as in everything else concerned with our salvation and sanctity, the Way. Hence it is clear that if we become separated from Him we shall not reach the end of our journey.
And lastly, ourselves. We shall do well not to lose sight of the multitude of our sins, the waywardness of our passions, the spiritual maladies which threaten us, our own feeble strength, the great need in which we stand that God should help us and take possession of our hearts. Otherwise we shall not pray well, nor correct those faults which prevent our union with God.
It is clear, then, that we should choose one of the three subjects just mentioned for special consideration without neglecting the two others. If no particular attraction be felt, the meditation should, in the generality
PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER
of cases, be made on the life and death of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
The subject once chosen, the next step is to prepare it. Many do this by reading a passage from Holy Writ, especially from the Gospels. Such persons are to be praised, for the preparation thus becomes more per- sonal and therefore more practical and fruit- ful. If the person who is making the con- templation," says St. Ignatius, takes the true groundwork of the narrative and, discuss- ing and considering for himself, finds some- thing which makes the events a little clearer or brings them a little more home to him, whether this comes through his own reason- ing, or because his intellect is enlightened by the Divine power, he will get more spiritual relish and fruit, than if he who is giving the exercises had much explained and amplified the meaning of the events. In this case, too, we may have recourse to the general and well-known developments. For instance, if the subject be some mystery of the Passion one may consider: 1. The intensity of the sufferings of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, so as to arouse compassion for them; 2. The enormity of sin, which has caused
PRINCIPAL ACTS OF PRAYER
such suffering, so as to be filled with a horror of it; 3. The infinite magnitude of the benefit received; hence, to return thanks to God for His goodness; 4. God's incomprehensible love for us, shown clearly in this mystery, and so, ardently to return that love; 5. The unfathomable wisdom of the eternal prov- idence, so as to admire and praise God for it; 6. The incomparable virtue of Our Lord shown here more clearly than anywhere else, so as to be brought to imitate it.
In the same way, if we are meditating on a passage from the Gospels, such as: "If any one will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."1 We might try to answer the following questions:
What considerations urge me to comply with this teaching?
How have I followed it up to the present?
What
