met ice of Mental 
 : rmuer 
 
 R§neDe Maumiqnm SJ. 
 
 Extraordmaru Prauer 
 
Class 
 
 
 
 Book .\Aaz,_ 
 
 Gopyright^°._I^l.l^_ 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 
 
THE PRACTICE OF 
 MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 BY 
 
 FATHER RENE DE MAUMIGNY 
 
 of the Society of Jesus 
 SECOND TREATISE 
 
 Cxtranrtrtnarg 3Prag?r 
 
 Translated from the Fourth Edition with the Author's 
 corrections and additions. 
 
 TRANSLATION REVISED BY 
 
 FATHER ELDER MULLAN, S.J. 
 
 P. J. KENEDY & SONS 
 
 Printers to the Holy Apostolic See 
 44 BARCLAY STREET, NEW YORK 
 
Concedimus facultatem ut liber cui titulus: "The Practice of Mental 
 Prayer, by Father Ren6 de Maumigny, of the Society of Jesus, 
 Second Treatise, Extraordinary Prayer : Translated from the Tourth 
 Edition with the Author's corrections and additions, translation revised 
 by Father Elder Mullan, S.J." Publici juris fiat, si iis ad quos 
 pertinet videbitur, 
 
 JOSEPH F. HANSELMAN, S.J. 
 
 Proep. Prov. Mary I. Neo-Ebor, 
 
 Wifjti #ijstat 
 
 Xmprtmatur 
 
 imprimatur 
 
 REMIGIUS LAFORT, 
 
 Censor Deputatus. 
 
 ►!« JOANNES GARDINAL FARLEY, 
 
 Archiep. Neo-Ebor. 
 
 Fr. ALBERTUS LEPIDI, O.P., 
 
 S.P.A. Magister. 
 
 imprimatur 
 
 ^JOSEPH CEPPETELLI, Patriarch. Const., 
 
 Vicesgerens 
 
 Copyright, 1915, by P. • Kenedy & Sons 
 
 DEC 30 1915 
 
 ©CI.A420101 
 
PREFACE 
 
 For some years, cases regarding extraor- 
 dinary prayer have often been laid before 
 me and I have thought Christian charity 
 entailed upon me the duty of giving my 
 humble opinion, in spite of the difficulty of 
 the subject. But in these lofty paths a single 
 answer is generally not enough, , and I have 
 been asked to supplement these individual 
 counsels by a treatise on infused Contemp- 
 lation. I will say nothing more as to the 
 origin of this work, because this is enough 
 to indicate its spirit. It is not a theological, 
 but a practical treatise that I have in mind, 
 and I have avoided as far as possible any- 
 thing which might give rise to controversy. 
 
 The treatise is divided into five parts. 
 
 Part i speaks of the nature and degrees of 
 Contemplation, but only so far as to give 
 the necessary ideas to directors for the guid- 
 ance of souls. I have inserted lengthy cita- 
 
 3 
 
4 PREFACE 
 
 tions from the writings of the Saints. Doubt- 
 less a few lines from an author would some- 
 times have been enough to prove the point 
 at issue, yet I have believed it very useful to 
 quote several pages. These passages, indeed, 
 in their all-heavenly beauty if quoted in part 
 might have stirred hearts but little to the love 
 of God; but reproduced in their entirety, 
 they afford souls a spiritual food well calcu- 
 lated to sanctify them, as Holy Church says 
 in the prayer for St. Teresa's feast. 
 
 Part 2 shows the great trials to which souls 
 raised to Contemplation are sooner or later 
 subjected. It is upon this point that I have 
 been most often consulted and consequently 
 I have been obliged to develop it rather at 
 length. I hope these pages, written with 
 bruised hearts rather than written books 
 before my eyes, will bring some comfort to 
 the afflicted souls who read them. 
 
 The subject of Part 3 is the virtues neces- 
 sary to contemplative souls. This part is of 
 supreme importance, since the greater number 
 of souls who are raised to Contemplation and 
 who make only indifferent progress in it, 
 must attribute it to the absence of solid vir- 
 tues. 
 
PREFACE 5 
 
 Part 4 treats of supernatural visions and 
 speech. Here illusion is easy and I have been 
 obliged to dwell at length upon the discern- 
 ment of spirits. 
 
 Lastly, the subject of Part 5 is the vocation 
 to infused Contemplation. The importance 
 of this question is obvious : in order to reach 
 the goal, it is not enough to run, but the run- 
 ning must be along the path leading to the 
 goal. 
 
 The sources from which I have drawn are 
 Holy Writ, the lives and writings of the Saints, 
 and the experience gained from the numerous 
 cases laid before me. I have avoided citing 
 particular instances of the wonderful oper- 
 ation of the Holy Ghost in souls, for on this 
 point discretion is of the highest importance. 
 
 May this humble work, composed for the 
 spiritual good of the generous souls who have 
 begged me for it, teach them how, having 
 received much from God, they may render 
 Him much in return. 
 
 I dedicate these pages to the Sacred Heart 
 of Jesus, the blessed Source of all grace, and 
 I humbly beg Him so to vivify them that they 
 may produce abundant fruits of sanctity. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface 3 
 
 PART I 
 
 Nature and Degrees of Extraordinary Prayer 
 
 CHAPTE-R 
 
 I. There are two Kinds of Mental Prayer: Ordi- 
 nary and Extraordinary 13 
 
 II. Supernatural Recollection 18 
 
 III. Difference between Supernatural Recollection 
 
 and Affective Prayer 2$ 
 
 IV. First Characteristic of Contemplation: Faith is 
 
 Rendered Perfect in it by the Gift of Wisdom, 
 which the Holy Ghost Showers upon the Soul . 26 
 V. Second Characteristic of Contemplation: It is 
 
 the Soul's Simple and Loving Gaze upon God . 3 1 
 VI. Third Characteristic of Contemplation: The 
 Soul there Learns to Know God by Experi- 
 ence, by means of the Five Spiritual Senses 
 Rendered Wonderfully Perfect by the Gift of 
 
 Wisdom 35 
 
 VII. Fourth Characteristic of Contemplation: The 
 Soul Feels no Fatigue, but in Profound Peace 
 Drinks Deep of the Living Waters of Wisdom 
 
 and Love 42 
 
 VIII. Fifth Characteristic of Contemplation: The 
 Powers of the Soul are Suspended by Admira- 
 tion and Love 46 
 
 7 
 
8 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 IX. Sixth Characteristic of Contemplation: It Is 
 
 the Beginning of Everlasting Beatitude 50 
 
 X. Definition of Contemplation 55 
 
 XI. Difference between Infused Contemplation and 
 the Active Contemplation of St. Ignatius 's 
 
 Exercises 58 
 
 XII. How there are Two kinds of Contemplation, One 
 
 Perfect, and the Other Imperfect 62 
 
 XIII. First Degree of Imperfect Contemplation: 
 
 Prayer of Quiet 68 
 
 XIV. The Other Degree of Imperfect Contemplation: 
 
 Spiritual Intoxication 73 
 
 XV. First Degree of Perfect Contemplation: Simple 
 
 Union 76 
 
 XVI. Second Degree of Perfect Contemplation: Ec- 
 static Union or Spiritual Betrothal 82 
 
 XVII. Consummated Union or Spiritual Marriage .... 94 
 
 XVIII. The Wounds Caused by Love 101 
 
 XIX. God's Works may be the Object of Infused Con- 
 templation 107 
 
 PART II 
 
 The Various Trials through which Souls Called to Contem- 
 plation Must Pass 
 
 I. Penetrating Sight of One's Sins. Feeling of having 
 
 been Abandoned by God 117 
 
 II. Second Trial: Spiritual Aridity 127 
 
 III. Third Trial: Temptations of the Devil 131 
 
 IV. Fourth Trial: Doubt as to the Truth of the Super- 
 natural Graces Received 136 
 
 V. Fifth Trial: A Mysterious Suffering in which Joy 
 and Pain are both United and where the Soul is 
 Purified as in a Purgatory 139 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 VI. A Few Words on the " Soul's Dark Night " by St. 
 
 John of the Cross 148 
 
 PART III 
 
 The Virtues and Devotions at which a Soul Must Labor 
 if It Wishes to Make Serious Progress in Contem- 
 plation 
 
 I. In General, the Soul which is called to Contemplation 
 must Give Itself to the Study and Practice of 
 Solid Virtues 157 
 
 II. The Soul Called to Contemplation must Keep Itself 
 
 entirely Free from Attachment to Creatures 167 
 
 III. The Soul Called to Contemplation and which 
 Wishes to make Real Progress in it, must Strive 
 after Intimate Union with Jesus Christ Crucified . 172 
 
 IV. The Soul Called to Contemplation and which Wishes 
 to Make Real Progress in it, must have a Special 
 Devotion to the Holy Eucharist 181 
 
 V. The End which God has in view in Raising a Soul to 
 Perfect Contemplation is not only to Lead it to 
 to the Divine Union, but further to Give it 
 Courage to Work and Suffer much for His Glory 187 
 
 PART IV 
 
 Supernatural Visions and Speech 
 
 I. Supernatural Visions and Speech: Their Nature 
 
 and Different Classes 197 
 
 II. The Precautions to be taken before Placing Faith in 
 
 Supernatural Visions and Speech 200 
 
10 CONTENTS 
 
 III. Five Ways in which God Speaks Supernaturally to 
 
 Souls, and how they should Receive these Ex- 
 traordinary Favors 217 
 
 IV. St. Ignatius' Rule for Avoiding Illusions in the 
 
 Use of Supernatural Speech 226 
 
 PART V 
 
 Vocation to Extraordinary Graces 
 
 I. Contemplation is not the only Means of Attaining 
 
 Christian Perfection 235 
 
 II. Contemplation Requires a Special Vocation, which 
 the greater number of Souls who make Mental 
 Prayer do not Possess 242 
 
 III. By what Signs may it be Recognized that a Soul is 
 
 Called to Contemplation? 252 
 
 IV. How the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius are a 
 
 Preparation for Infused Contemplation 256 
 
 V. To what Extent may Extraordinary Graces be 
 
 Desired? 261 
 
 VI. To what Extent is the Reading of Books treating 
 of Extraordinary States to be Allowed to Pious 
 
 Souls? 270 
 
 VII. What is to be the Conduct of a Soul Raised to Con- 
 templation when making a Private Retreat?. . 274 
 VIII. What Share should Religious Raised to Con- 
 templation take in General Retreats? 281 
 
PART I 
 jSature anb ©egrog of Cxtraorbmarp draper 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF MENTAL FRAYER: 
 ORDINARY AND EXTRAORDINARY 
 
 There are two kinds of mental prayer: 
 one, the more usual and within the power of 
 all devout souls; the other, the lot of a few 
 privileged souls and to be attributed less to 
 themselves than to the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The more common form admits of methods ; 
 not so the other, though those whom God has 
 called to it need careful direction, calculated 
 to dispel the obstacles to grace. The first 
 demands much work and is more or less of the 
 nature of the labors of this world; the second 
 is made without effort and is a foretaste of 
 the rest to be enjoyed in Heaven. 
 
 These two kinds of prayer have received 
 different names, which must be known if the 
 works of the Saints and other spiritual writers 
 are to be understood. 
 
 i . The first kind of prayer is called ordinary 
 because it is made by the help of that grace 
 which God refuses to none ; the second, extraor- 
 dinary, because it is made by means of a 
 
 13 
 
14 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 special grace which God grants but to few. 
 Just as an unfledged bird cannot rise up into 
 the air, however much it tries, so it is impos- 
 sible for the soul which has not received the 
 gift of extraordinary prayer from the Holy 
 Ghost to attain it by its own efforts and the 
 help of common grace. 
 
 2. The first kind of prayer is called natural, 
 and indeed, although grace raises nature to 
 this stage, nature Still preserves her character- 
 istic way of acting. The intellect thus reflects 
 on a spiritual in the same way as on a scien- 
 tific, truth, and love of God is testified in the 
 same way as affection towards a father or 
 a friend. 
 
 The second kind of prayer is called super- 
 natural because grace so elevates nature that 
 the soul knows and loves in a way superior to 
 the ordinary way of knowing and loving — so 
 the Saints, taught by personal experience, 
 affirm unanimously. 
 
 3. The first kind of prayer is called active 
 because effort is made to gain light for the 
 intellect and fervor for the will by means of 
 distinct acts, demanding more or less work. 
 As opposed to this, the second kind of prayer 
 is called passive or infused, since instead of 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 15 
 
 light and love being sought in distinct acts, 
 they are received directly from God, not how- 
 ever to the exclusion of the soul's cooperation. 
 In this sense St. Dionysius says of his master 
 Hierotheus that ' ' he suffered divine things." 1 
 
 4. Ordinary prayer is called Meditation 
 because the truth is then sought by means 
 of reasoning and reflection. Extraordinary 
 prayer is called Contemplation because then 
 there is no process of reasoning, but the truth 
 is known by intuition. It is most imperative 
 that this passive or extraordinary contempla- 
 tion should be distinguished from the active 
 or ordinary contemplation which has been 
 spoken of in the first treatise. 2 In future when 
 the word Contemplation is used, unless other- 
 wise stated, passive or extraordinary con- 
 templation is to be always understood, in 
 accordance with the phraseology used by all 
 the Saints and spiritual writers when treating 
 of that kind of prayer which occupies our 
 attention here. 
 
 In conclusion, in extraordinary prayer God 
 sheds upon the soul such a simple knowledge 
 and pure love as it would be impossible to 
 
 1 De divinis nominibus, c. 2. 
 
 2 Ordinary Prayer, Part 5, ch. 1. 
 
16 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 gain by means of ordinary grace. The Holy 
 Ghost effects this wonder through the gift 
 of wisdom, which, according to St. Bonaven- 
 ture, is " like a sun shining with knowledge 
 and burning with charity." x 
 
 Extraordinary prayer is composed of three 
 main divisions: 
 
 i. Supernatural Recollection, where the 
 knowledge and love are not sufficiently intense 
 to suspend the powers of the soul, whose action 
 remains free. 
 
 2. Contemplation, where the superabun- 
 dance of knowledge and ove ravishes, at least 
 partially, the intellect and will. 
 
 3. Consummate union, where these powers 
 regain full liberty of action. This change 
 results not from the knowledge and love being 
 any less great than in Contemplation ; on 
 the contrary, they are much more intense, but 
 the Holy Ghost so strengthens the soul that 
 incomparable floods of light and love could 
 not absorb it n the slightest. 
 
 The reader must not be astonished if the 
 same word " Contemplation " be used with 
 two different meanings: first, as a synonym 
 for extraordinary prayer, and later on, to 
 
 1 Dt Dono Sapkntiae, C. 4, Vol. 7, p. 639. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 17 
 
 denote one of the three main divisions of this 
 same kind of prayer. This is constantly done 
 by the Saints and masters of the spiritual life 
 in their writings, the context showing how the 
 word " Contemplation " is to be interpreted. 
 Such anomalies, besides, are not uncommon 
 in spiritual books. For instance the word 
 " prayer " is taken sometimes to mean mental 
 prayer in general; at others, in a more partic- 
 ular sense, the petition for graces helpful for 
 salvation. 
 
18 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 SUPERNATURAL RECOLLECTION 
 
 Supernatural Recollection forms part 
 of extraordinary prayer, for we cannot attain 
 it, even in an elementary degree, by means of 
 ordinary grace alone; the assistance of the 
 Holy Ghost is required, shedding upon the 
 soul the life-giving waters of wisdom, the 
 highest of His gifts. Then the soul begins to 
 receive direct from God the light and love 
 which were previously obtained by distinct 
 acts of the intellect and will, the passive replac- 
 ing the active. Then, again, the soul enters 
 on a new knowledge and love of God, found in 
 a wonderfully simple and loving attention to 
 God, which causes the soul to feel consumed 
 by love. Then, finally, the soul is filled with 
 peace, a foretaste of eternal rest. 
 
 The soul's happiness does not, however, go 
 so far as rapture, even partial, the total or 
 partial suspension of the powers being reserved 
 for Contemplation, where wisdom is showered 
 upon the soul much more abundantly. Since 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 19 
 
 the intellect, will and memory remain free, 
 to restrain their activity would be tempt- 
 ing God and exposing oneself to many a dis- 
 traction. 
 
 Saint Teresa says: " When God raises the 
 soul to this prayer, then, according to the 
 advice of certain writers, it may doubtless 
 rest content in listening to God's voice and, 
 without entering into any reasoning with the 
 understanding, remain attentive to God and 
 regard Him working within it. But unless 
 Our Lord has caused the soul to pass from 
 recollection to Contemplation, I cannot under- 
 stand how the reasoning of the understanding 
 can be stopped without more harm than 
 good resulting. Yet this question has been 
 much discussed by persons concerned with 
 the spiritual life, some of whom hold the 
 contrary opinion. . . . One of these referred 
 me to a treatise of Blessed Fr. Peter of Alcan- 
 tara. As I hold him a saint and know what 
 light he had on this subject, I would willingly 
 have submitted to his authority. But having 
 read the book, we found that this holy man said 
 exactly the same thing as I. His explanation, 
 it is true, is expressed in different words, but it 
 is clear, for he expressly says so, that the soul 
 
20 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 should only check the reasoning of the under- 
 standing when God has raised it to a higher 
 kind of prayer and keeps it united to Himself 
 by love. . . . Let us be careful not to remain 
 foolishly inactive, for all that^is left to the soul 
 which suppresses the acts of the intellect is the 
 shame for its foolish attempt and much greater 
 dryness; its imagination only becomes more 
 unruly in its violent effort to think of nothing. 
 • . . There is nothing more pleasing to God 
 than to see us busied with the thought of His 
 honor and glory, forgetful of our advantage 
 and pleasure. Now, how can this forgetful- 
 ness of self exist in one who is paying so much 
 attention to himself that he dares not stir? 
 And how can he rejoice at God's glory and 
 wish for its increase when he is only thinking 
 of checking the activity of his understanding? 
 . . . Since God has given us the powers of 
 the soul to use and since the effort made by 
 each has its reward, instead of holding them 
 prisoners by a kind of enchantment, let us 
 allow them to freely fulfil their usual function 
 until God sees fit to confer a higher one upon 
 them." 1 
 
 But the contrary excess must be avoided, 
 
 1 Chdteau interieur, 4 e demeure, ch. 3, t. 3, pp. 368-371. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 21 
 
 namely such zealous activity that the peace 
 and sweetness due to God's loving gaze are 
 stifled. This would be depriving the soul of 
 a spiritual food which strengthens it in a 
 wonderful way. 
 
 To conclude, the principle which is to govern 
 all in this kind of prayer is, that above all, 
 the repose which the soul enjoys in the general 
 and loving knowledge of God must not be 
 disturbed in any way; yet, on the other hand, 
 the powers should not be kept inactive, since 
 they remain free to act. So then, if the soul 
 finds more spiritual pleasure in making only 
 acts of the affections, let the reflections be 
 omitted, and if it finds more fruit in God's 
 loving look alone, let it omit not only the reflec- 
 tions, but even the distinct affections. 
 
 The soul then feels consumed with love, 
 in the midst of an undefined view of its Cre- 
 ator. Let it not lament the loss of the spirit- 
 ual fruit previously gained by distinct con- 
 siderations and affections, for all that is 
 written in books, however sublime, of the 
 Divine attributes pales before what the soul 
 understands and experiences in God Himself. 
 As to the will, it loves the one and only good, 
 including in itself all other good, and yet this 
 
22 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 one act of general love includes much more 
 than all the other distinct acts of the affections 
 which it could make. Supernatural Recollec- 
 tion is the vestibule of Contemplation. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 23 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUPERNATURAL REC- 
 OLLECTION AND AFFECTIVE PRAYER 
 
 It seems at first as though there would be 
 no difference between Supernatural Recollec- 
 tion and Affective Prayer, and indeed there 
 are three characteristics common to both: a 
 pure, sweet love of God, the numerous affec- 
 tions which accompany such love, and the 
 absence of fatigue. 
 
 And yet these two kinds of prayer are essen- 
 tially distinct, especially in the four following 
 points : 
 
 i. In Supernatural Recollection, the pure 
 sweet love of God is poured upon the soul by 
 the Holy Ghost. It belongs, then, to the 
 passive order. In Affective Prayer, this love 
 is acquired by more or less numerous acts 
 made by the intellect and the will, aided by 
 the Holy Ghost. It belongs thus to the actiie 
 order. 
 
 2. The special grace of Affective Prayer 
 does not go so far as to enable the soul to make 
 essentially new acts, but allows it to make 
 
24 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 with ease and wonderful sweetness, acts of 
 the affections already made. The grace of 
 Supernatural Recollection is entirely different, 
 for it raises the soul to essentially new 
 forms of activity, which St. Bernard calls 
 angelic rather than human. 
 
 3. In Supernatural Recollection there is no 
 essential beyond an indistinct yet loving view 
 of God, in which the soul feels consumed with 
 love: the distinct reflections and affections 
 which sometimes occur are supplementary. 
 A comparison will make this clearer: When 
 the day is drawing to a close, we are obliged to 
 light the lamps, but the powerful light of the 
 sun, reflected in the vast expanse of the 
 heavens, still surpasses these artificial lights. 
 In the same way, in Supernatural Recollec- 
 tion there is sometimes need to have recourse 
 to repeated reflections and affections in order to 
 banish distractions, but these are only supple- 
 mentary and accessory acts, above which lies 
 the pure sky of a general and loving attention 
 to God. Manifold acts of the affections, on 
 the other hand, are the very essence of Affect- 
 ive Prayer. 
 
 4. In Supernatural Recollection the soul 
 enjoys so profound a peace and so sweet a joy 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 25 
 
 that it feels it has found true happiness. 
 There is nothing of this in Affective Prayer. 
 Here the soul enjoys an exceptional happiness 
 and rest, it is true, but at the same time it 
 feels that in this method there will always be 
 something to be desired. 
 
 The part played by Supernatural Recollec- 
 tion in extraordinary prayer is considerable. 
 In the first place, it is the first sure sign by 
 which it may be recognized that a soul is 
 called to contemplation and should in future 
 hold a more elevated converse with God. It 
 is, too, the method of prayer usual among 
 contemplative souls: they cannot long main- 
 tain the heights of contemplation and are 
 forced to return to a more modest kind of 
 prayer. 
 
26 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 FIRST CHARACTERISTIC OF CONTEMPLATION: 
 FAITH IS RENDERED PERFECT IN IT BY THE 
 GIFT OF WISDOM, WHICH THE HOLY GHOST 
 SHOWERS UPON THE SOUL 
 
 " We see now through a glass in ar dark 
 manner, but then face to face," x says the 
 Apostle. In Contemplation the mirror, that 
 is, the spiritual image by means of which we 
 know God here below, does not disappear and 
 give place to the sight of Him face to face, but 
 His image becomes much more perfect. The 
 enigma, that is, the obscurity of faith, does not 
 cease to exist, but the light becomes more 
 intense. Since the image and obscurity 
 remain, this knowledge too remains a knowl- 
 edge of faith; but since the image is more 
 perfect and the light more intense, it is a 
 more elevated kind of faith. 
 
 This elevation of faith is due to the gift of 
 wisdom, the highest of the gifts of the Holy 
 Ghost. However, the degree of wisdom com- 
 mon to all souls in a state of grace, is not 
 
 1 1 Cor. 13: 12. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 27 
 
 sufficient to perfect faith in this wonderful 
 way. A more eminent degree is required, 
 which God grants to certain privileged souls, 
 called contemplatives. 
 
 Let us listen to what St. Thomas says: 
 "The contemplation which renders faith use- 
 less is that of glory. Thanks to this con- 
 templation, supernatural truth is seen in its 
 essence. Neither the Angels before their con- 
 firmation in grace, nor man before he had 
 committed sin had this power of contempla- 
 tion; and yet their contemplation was more 
 elevated in nature than ours. By its means 
 they approached nearer to God and were able 
 to understand more clearly than we, God's 
 doings and the mysteries connected with Him. 
 Their faith, then, was not like that by means 
 of which we seek for God, for He was more 
 nearly present to them than to us by virtue 
 of the light of wisdom." l 
 
 This faith, which belongs to the state of 
 innocence, did not disappear entirely after the 
 Fall, but became the heritage of those souls 
 who are called by a special favor to Con- 
 templation. 
 
 It is by means of this faith, thus wonder- 
 
 l 2 a 2 ae , q. 5, a. I, ad I. 
 
28 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 fully illuminated by the gift of wisdom, that 
 uneducated men, such as St. Paschal Baylon, 1 
 have been able to answer the most difficult 
 theological questions and even to write admir- 
 ably on theology. It was this faith that, in 
 the case of St. Ignatius, shed such vivid light 
 on the divine mysteries that he felt ready to 
 lay down his life in their defense. 2 
 
 St. John of the Cross has devoted the 
 twelfth stanza of his Spiritual Canticles to a 
 description of the excellence of this kind of 
 faith, which is, as it were, a thin veil through 
 which the greatness and infinite beauty of the 
 Creator may be seen: " Faith," he says, " is 
 become so illuminated and transparent that 
 some of the wonderful traits of God's greatness 
 may be perceived. . . . The soul experiences 
 an absorbing desire to be united to its spouse, 
 and having recognized the absolute power- 
 lessness of creatures to help it to this end, it 
 has recourse to faith, which alone can throw 
 true light on its Beloved, choosing faith as the 
 means by which it may attain this blessed 
 union. . . . The soul expresses its consum- 
 ing desire in verses whose meaning is > O faith 
 of Jesus Christ, my Spouse, thou art the 
 
 1 Breviary, 17 May. 2 Ibid., 31 July. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 29 
 
 possessor of truth in this dark life. Reveal 
 to me those truths relating to my Beloved 
 which thou hast placed in my soul, but veiled 
 by thy mysterious shades. Ah ! if, instead of 
 imparting them to me in a vague and hidden 
 manner, thou wouldst but show them to me 
 in all the brightness and entirety of their 
 perfection! Thou art the veil which covers 
 them. Would to God that thou might est be 
 withdrawn and I be allowed to contemplate 
 and possess them in the full and perfect 
 manifestation of glory! . . . How to im- 
 agine the burning desire, the intense pain 
 which tortures the soul when, about to enjoy 
 its Sovereign Good, that Good is taken from 
 it? The nearer we see the object of our desires 
 the more it seems adapted to our grasp, the 
 more cruel and unbearable the anguish which 
 we experience when that object is denied to 
 us." 1 
 
 Yes, faith perfected in wisdom becomes 
 sometimes so illuminated that the soul can do 
 nothing but languish in the desire of seeing 
 the transparent veil, which separates it from 
 God, withdrawn. 
 
 " In a word, how do you think, Theotimus, M 
 
 1 Cantiques Spirituels, str. 12, t. 4, pp. 120, 121, 122, 130. 
 
30 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 says St. Francis of Sales, " that the soul which 
 has once tasted a divine consolation to the full, 
 can live in this world surrounded by so many 
 miseries without experiencing almost perpet- 
 ual pain and languor? That wonderful ser- 
 vant of God, Francis Xavier, was often heard 
 raising his voice to Heaven, when he thought 
 he was quite alone: 'Alas, Lord, do not, I 
 beg, overwhelm me by such a flood of con- 
 solation, or, if in Thy infinite bounty Thou 
 wishest to thus surround me with delight, 
 take me to Paradise, for he who has once 
 tasted Thy sweetness in his soul, must live in 
 bitterness when he is not enjoying Thee/ " l 
 
 Such, too, was the interior martyrdom 
 endured by St. Teresa, when she cried: " I 
 live but rapt out of myself. I await such 
 high life in God that I am dying for not 
 dying." 2 
 
 1 Amour de Dieu, i. 6, ch. 15, t. 4, p. 361 — Tursellinus, Vita 
 S. Fr. Xav., 1. 6, c. 5. 
 
 2 Cantique, t. 2, p. 569. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 31 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 SECOND CHARACTERISTIC OF CONTEMPLATION: 
 IT IS THE SOUL'S SIMPLE AND LOVING GAZE 
 UPON GOD 
 
 Contemplation is not made by reasoning, 
 that is, by a sequence of judgments deduced 
 one from the other: it is that simple gaze of 
 the intelligence which is called intuition. 
 " Contemplation," says St. Thomas, " belongs 
 to the simple intuition of truth." l 
 
 Let us try to explain this second charac- 
 teristic by a comparison, though a very im- 
 perfect one. An artist goes by night to the 
 Vatican to study Raphael's " Transfigura- 
 tion." As he has only a feeble light, he spends 
 several hours in moving the lamp from one 
 part to another, so as to make its light fall 
 at one time on Our Lord's face and His gar- 
 ments, at another on Moses and Elias. But 
 directly morning has come and the sun's rays 
 light up the room, he sees immediately at a 
 glance what he has seen piece by piece and 
 by successive examinations. 
 
 1 2 a 2 ae , q. i88, art. 3, ad 1. 
 
32 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 In the same way, he who meditates on God's 
 infinite perfection considers in turn His Al- 
 mighty Wisdom, Power, Justice, Mercy and 
 so on. But when a ray of God's Wisdom 
 comes from heaven, all is instantly changed. 
 Meditation gives place to Contemplation, and 
 intuition, which comprises all the preceding 
 considerations in an eminent degree, takes 
 the place of reasoning. 
 
 In Contemplation, the general view of God 
 is confused, it is true, for God is only seen 
 as a Being incomprehensible in His nature, 
 Whose wisdom is unfathomable in its depths, 
 Whose excellence is inaccessible in its heights, 
 Whose charity is without bounds, Whose 
 eternity is without limit, Whose essence is 
 at once infinitely clear and obscure, and about 
 which, the more one knows, the more one 
 understands that there still remains infinitely 
 more to know. 1 But this in no way detracts 
 from the preeminence of Contemplation over 
 Meditation. The confused view that results 
 from looking at the sea gives a much better 
 idea of the power of its waters than the dis- 
 tinct view of the rivers flowing into it. It is 
 
 1 Cf. Alvarez de Paz, i. 5, p. 3, c. 1. Moguntiae, 1619, t. 3. p. 
 1754. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 33 
 
 the same in prayer : the confused view of God's 
 perfection, as obtained from Contemplation, 
 gives a much higher idea of His infinite excel- 
 lence than the distinct view of His attributes 
 gained from Meditation. 
 
 Contemplation is, then, in the first place, 
 a simple and prolonged gaze upon God ; it is 
 also and always a loving gaze, that is, the 
 soul's spiritual eye is fixed on its divine Object 
 not only because of its infinite beauty, but 
 also on account of the love with which this 
 Object inflames it. See this little child, so 
 attractive by reason of its charming face. 
 Its mother spends hours looking at it, doubt- 
 less because of the beauty of its features, but 
 also and more especially, because she loves it. 
 So it is with the soul and God in Contempla- 
 tion. 
 
 " The sensitive or intellectual appetite," 
 says St. Thomas, " is moved to consider an 
 object sometimes on account of the love felt 
 for the object itself, as St. Matthew says: 
 1 Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart 
 also ; ' * sometimes on account of the love 
 of knowledge itself, which results from the 
 consideration. It is for this reason that St. 
 
 l 2 Matth. 6: 21. 
 
34 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 Gregory places the contemplative life in 
 charity, in the sense that the love of God 
 produces the burning desire of contemplating 
 His beauty." 
 
 Later on, the holy Doctor comes back to 
 the same idea, saying: " Although the seat of 
 the contemplative life is essentially the intel- 
 lect, it has, however, its origin in the affection 
 in the sense that one is moved by charity to 
 contemplate God.' ' x 
 
 In short, in infused Contemplation the Holy 
 Ghost never sheds light upon the intellect 
 without also enkindling the fire of love in the 
 will, with the result that one is never satiated 
 with gazing upon God, not only on account 
 of His inexpressible beauty, but also because 
 the love one bears Him stirs one to con- 
 template Him. If, then, in prayer, the knowl- 
 edge of God is not, as it were, ingulfed in an 
 ocean of love and consequently all inflamed 
 with charity, there may still be lights of great 
 value for instructing the soul and for direct- 
 ing it in the way of perfection, but on the 
 other hand there is nothing of inspired Con- 
 templation about it. 
 
 1 2 a 2 ae , q. 180, a. 7, ad I. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 35 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THIRD CHARACTERISTIC OF CONTEMPLATION: 
 THE SOUL THERE LEARNS TO KNOW GOD BY 
 EXPERIENCE, BY MEANS OF THE FIVE SPIRIT- 
 UAL SENSES RENDERED WONDERFULLY PER- 
 FECT BY THE GIFT OF WISDOM 
 
 In the treatise on Ordinary Prayer, 1 it has 
 been seen that, in addition to the five ex- 
 ternal senses and the five internal senses of 
 the imagination, the soul also possesses five 
 spiritual senses. These latter are nothing but 
 the intellect and the will learning to know and 
 enjoy the spiritual in a way akin to that in 
 which the senses of the body learn to know 
 and enjoy the material. 
 
 The same gift of wisdom, besides marvel- 
 lously perfecting faith and charity in Con- 
 templation, raises the spiritual senses until 
 it allows them to learn to know God by experi- 
 ence. 
 
 But what is to be understood precisely by 
 this experimental knowledge? St. Bonaven- 
 ture thus explains it: " Even though all man- 
 
 1 Ordinary Prayer*J?a,rt 5, c. 3. 
 
36 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 kind told me that such a thing is sweet, I 
 should not gain an experimental knowledge of 
 it, whatever proofs might be brought forward, 
 but I could only form an opinion about it, or 
 believe it, or know about it. But if my taste 
 touches some object or is touched by it, then 
 I have an experimental knowledge of it. It 
 is the same with the internal taste and other 
 spiritual senses. If I read or hear it said that 
 the Lord is sweet, I have not in consequence 
 an experimental knowledge, unless my spirit- 
 ual taste be affected by the divine sweetness 
 and I can say with the spouse: His fruit is 
 sweet to my mouth." x 
 
 The question of the experimental knowl- 
 edge of God is most important in the study 
 of Contemplation, and therefore it is neces- 
 sary to prove its existence. Reason, evi- 
 dently, teaches nothing on this point. As to 
 Holy Writ, it is true that it speaks of the 
 spiritual senses, as for instance when it says: 
 " O taste and see that the Lord is sweet ;" 2 
 but this agreeableness is also met in marked 
 consolation of the usual order, and no con- 
 
 1 De septem itineribus ceternitatis, De sexto itinere, dist. i. t. 
 8, p. 464. 
 2 Ps. 33:9. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 37 
 
 elusion can be drawn with reference to the 
 subject here under discussion. We must have 
 recourse to the experience of the Saints. 
 
 St. Augustine says in his Confessions: "What 
 is it I love, O my God, when I love Thee? It 
 is not corporal beauty, nor the dazzling light 
 which charms our eyes, nor the sweet varied 
 tones of music, not the delightful odor of 
 flowers, perfumes, or spices, nor manna, nor 
 honey, nor an attractive form. . . . And yet 
 when I love my God, I love a light, a voice, 
 an odor, a food, an embrace which takes place 
 within my soul. There, shines a light which 
 space cannot limit; there, re-echoes a cease- 
 less melody; there, arises an odor which no 
 wind can disperse; there, I taste the savor 
 of a food which no appetite can diminish; 
 there, I possess that of which not even satiety 
 can dispel the charms. That is what I love 
 when I love God." * 
 
 In the first account of her states of prayer 
 to Father Rodrigue Alvarez, St. Teresa says: 
 " The first kind of supernatural prayer which 
 I experienced in my own case was an interior 
 recollection caused by the soul's seeming to 
 possess, interiorly, new senses, not unlike the 
 
 1 Confessions, i. 10, eh, 6. 
 
38 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 exterior ones. It tries, seemingly, to get rid 
 of the trouble caused by these exterior senses 
 and the soul thus gains the victory over them, 
 and sometimes even draws them after her. 
 Its delight is to close the eyes and ears of 
 the body so as to see and hear only that 
 with which it is occupied, namely to treat 
 with God in privacy.' ' x 
 
 Then, passing to a more elevated though 
 imperfect degree of Supernatural Prayer, the 
 Saint describes the senses of smell and touch 
 in the following words : 
 
 " The soul breathes an indescribably sweet 
 odor, as if in the depths there was a brazier 
 on which perfumes of the finest quality were 
 being thrown. Neither the light of the fire 
 nor its position is seen, it is true; but the 
 whole soul is filled with the warmth of this 
 scent-laden air and often, as I have said, the 
 body, too, shares the same sensation. Do 
 not imagine, however, that one feels the 
 warmth and breathes the scent; it is some- 
 thing much more delicate and I only use these 
 terms to render the ideas more intelligible." 2 
 
 Later on the Saint rises much higher and de- 
 
 1 Lettres, Vol. i, p. 379. 
 
 2 Chdteau interieur, 4* demeure, ch. 2, t. 3, pp. 361, 362. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 39 
 
 scribes the spiritual sense of sight, hearing and 
 touch in a most elevated way. Such trans- 
 ports are confined to those souls only who 
 have arrived at the highest point of Contem- 
 plation: " Often when the soul least expects 
 it and even when it is not thinking of God, 
 Our Lord suddenly rouses it by a flash of 
 lightning, as it were. Yet it perceives no 
 light and hears no noise, but it most clearly 
 understands that its God is calling it. So 
 overcome is the soul by the sound of that 
 Voice, especially in the beginning, that it 
 trembles and moans, although suffering no 
 pain. It feels that it has suffered an inde- 
 scribably sweet wound, although ignorant of 
 its author or its manner. So precious is this 
 wound in the eyes of the soul that it never 
 wishes to be cured of it. ... In this pain it 
 tastes an incomparably greater pleasure than 
 the exquisite rapture of the prayer of quiet 
 in which there is no mixture of suffering." l 
 
 Finally, St. John of the Cross, when speak- 
 ing of the highest form of Contemplation, thus 
 describes spiritual taste, sight and touch: 
 " This sublime and loving knowledge of God 
 is the characteristic of the unitive state, being 
 
 1 Chdteau interieur, 6 e demeure, ch. 2, t. 3, pp. 429, 430. 
 
40 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 in fact the union itself and consisting in God's 
 mysteriously touching the soul's very depths. 
 It is God Himself that the soul feels and tastes, 
 but not, of course, as fully and as clearly as in 
 the light of the beatific vision. The devil 
 cannot meddle with a favor at once so elevated 
 and so profound. It is not within his power 
 to bring about anything of this kind, nor to 
 shed such pleasures and delights upon the soul, 
 for these lights procure the joy of a feeble and 
 rapid glance upon God's essence and life 
 eternal. . . . Some of these lights and touches, 
 by means of which God reaches the soul, en- 
 rich it in a wonderful way. One of them is 
 enough to remove in an instant certain imper- 
 fections from the soul which it had not been 
 able to get rid of by its own efforts during life 
 and in addition, to leave it adorned with virtue 
 and overwhelmed with supernatural gifts. 
 One such rapturous consolation can reward 
 the soul for all the sufferings of its life, even 
 were they without number. Then, endowed 
 with indomitable courage and a passionate 
 desire to suffer for its God, the soul endures 
 the extraordinary torture of not being able 
 to suffer more." l 
 
 1 Montie du Carmel, i. 2, Ch. 26, t. 2, pp. 319, 320, 321. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 41 
 
 In imperfect Contemplation, experimental 
 knowledge is most often gained by the one 
 spiritual sense of taste alone, God being 
 known by the sweetness of His love. 1 
 
 Now the difference which exists between 
 the ordinary and extraordinary use of the five 
 senses is clear. 
 
 In ordinary prayer the soul acquires by 
 means of acts of the intellect and will, analo- 
 gous to sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, 
 an excellent devotion, at one and the same 
 time sweet and strong, calm and fervent. 
 
 In Contemplation the soul receives direct 
 from the Holy Ghost, by means of these 
 spiritual senses perfected by wisdom, such a 
 perfect experimental knowledge of God that 
 no other method could attain the same end. 
 
 This excellent knowledge gained by the 
 spiritual senses, especially by the sweetness 
 and touch of God's love, never, however, 
 takes the place of faith, but only adds to it. 
 Faith always holds the first place, and the 
 knowledge it gives is of far more dignity and 
 certainty. 
 
 1 Suarez, De Oratione, t. 14, p. 186, n. 36. 
 
42 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 FOURTH CHARACTERISTIC OF CONTEMPLATION: 
 THE SOUL FEELS NO FATIGUE, BUT IN PRO- 
 FOUND PEACE DRINKS DEEP OF THE LIVING 
 WATERS OF WISDOM AND LOVE 
 
 Meditation is made by means of acts of the 
 intellect and will, with the help of the ordinary- 
 grace which God refuses to none; here then 
 the soul is at work and feels fatigue. In Con- 
 templation, on the contrary, the Holy Ghost 
 sheds light and love upon the soul, which has 
 only to accept them humbly and gratefully. 
 Here the soul neither works nor experiences 
 fatigue. 
 
 St. Teresa explains this by the metaphor 
 of a gardener whose garden needs water: the 
 mystic garden in which virtue blooms is the 
 soul; the gardener, he who prays. In Medi- 
 tation, the gardener draws water by means 
 of his bodily strength and consequently be- 
 comes wearied. In the contrary case of Con- 
 templation, the gardener has only to receive 
 the water which falls from heaven and no 
 fatigue results. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 43 
 
 St. Francis of Sales draws another com- 
 parison from the Canticle of Canticles: " Eat, 
 O friends, and drink and be inebriated, my 
 dearly beloved. 1 In all these divine mysteries 
 which comprise all others," says the Saint, 
 11 there is indeed enough to eat and drink for 
 all the dear friends, and to inebriate the very 
 dear friends. . . . Now to eat is to meditate, 
 for in Meditation the spiritual meat is masti- 
 cated by the teeth of consideration, the crum- 
 bling, crushing and digesting being accom- 
 plished with some difficulty. To drink is to 
 contemplate, and this is done without diffi- 
 culty or resistance, but rather with pleasure 
 and readiness, while to ^be inebriated is to 
 contemplate so often and so ardently that 
 one is carried out of oneself to be entirely in 
 God." 2 
 
 [ St. John of the Cross says: " As soon as the 
 soul places itself in the presence of God, it 
 enters into the possession of that profound 
 peace where it drinks deep of the living waters 
 of wisdom and love, without having to bring 
 the water in the aqueducts of considerations, 
 comparisons and figures. In this way the 
 
 1 Cant. 5, i. 
 
 8 Amour de Dieu t I. 6, c. 6, t. 4, p. 324, 
 
44 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 man suffering from a burning thirst quenches 
 it without effort beside the clear stream." l 
 
 St. Teresa addressing these souls which are 
 no longer beginners, but have attained the 
 most sublime degree of Contemplation pos- 
 sible in this life, says: " There Our Lord 
 enriches the soul with His Gifts and Lights, 
 at the same time surrounding it with such 
 profound peace and perfect silence, that it 
 reminds me of the building of Solomon's 
 temple, where no noise was allowed. This 
 seventh dwelling may also be called the 
 temple of God, where God and the soul enjoy 
 each other in profound silence. ... It is 
 here, in my opinion, that God grants its 
 request by giving it the supreme pledge of 
 His love. Here is the source of living waters 
 of which the wounded hind drinks deep and 
 quenches her thirst. Here is God's taber- 
 nacle where this well-beloved soul tastes 
 indescribable delights. In a word, it is here 
 that, like the dove which Noe sent from the 
 Ark to see if the waters of the flood had abated, 
 the soul has found the olive branch and by 
 showing it announced that dry land had been 
 found in the midst of the waves and storms 
 
 1 Montee du Carmel, i, 2, ch. 14, t. 2, pp. 196, 198. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 45 
 
 of the world. ... I assure you, my daughters, 
 however, that these souls are not without 
 their cross, but it does not disquiet them in 
 the least nor in any way disturb their peace. 
 The cross passes away like a wave or slight 
 storm, and calm is immediately restored 
 because the presence of their adorable Spouse 
 makes them forget all else. May He be 
 blessed and praised by all creatures. Amen. " l 
 
 1 Chdteau interieur, 7 e demeure, ch. 3, t. 3, pp. 549, 551, 552. 
 
46 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 FIFTH CHARACTERISTIC OF CONTEMPLATION: 
 THE POWERS OF THE SOUL ARE SUSPENDED 
 BY ADMIRATION AND LOVE 
 
 Great orators arouse and hold the attention ; 
 masters of eloquence go even further and 
 carry their listeners out of themselves to such 
 an extent that they forget everything else and 
 can no longer do anything but listen to words 
 which charm and enkindle them. Somewhat 
 the same thing takes place in Contemplation, 
 but of an immeasurably higher nature. The 
 soul, ravished in God, forgets all created 
 things, becomes incapable of coming back on 
 self and is absorbed by the sole occupation of 
 learning to know God with admiration and to 
 love Him. " Contemplation," says the author 
 of the Ladder of the Cloistered, " is the eleva- 
 tion of the soul, which, being suspended in 
 God, tastes the joys of everlasting sweetness." l 
 Complete suspension takes place only in per- 
 fect Contemplation, for in imperfect Con- 
 
 1 This work, formerly attributed to St. Bernard, is by Guigues, 
 Prior of the Grande Chartreuse, who was much praised by St. 
 Bernard and Peter the Venerable. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 47 
 
 templation the soul is not entirely absorbed 
 in God and consequently is still undergoing 
 the trial of distractions. 
 
 St. Teresa, who is constantly speaking of 
 the suspension of the soul's powers, is always 
 careful to distinguish between partial and 
 total suspension. In the fourteenth chapter 
 of her Life, when speaking of the prayer of the 
 quiet, belonging to imperfect Contemplation, 
 where the suspension is only partial, St. 
 Teresa teaches us by means of a graceful 
 metaphor how the will is suspended and sunk 
 in God, while the understanding and the 
 memory, which remain free, go and seek their 
 food elsewhere, like the doves: 
 
 " Without knowing how it becomes cap- 
 tive, the will simply gives God its consent to 
 His imprisoning it, sure of being fettered by 
 Him it loves. . . . The understanding and 
 memory come to the assistance of the will so 
 that it may become more capable of enjoying 
 sq great a good. Yet sometimes this co-oper- 
 ation only serves to disturb the will in this 
 intimate union with God. In such a case 
 the will, without being troubled by their 
 importunity, should seek to maintain the 
 pleasure and profound calm which it enjoys. 
 
48 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 To try to fix these two powers is to be led 
 astray with them. They are then like doves 
 which, not content with the food their master 
 gives them without any work on their part, 
 go to seek other food elsewhere, but finding 
 their quest useless, hasten to return to their 
 dovecot. These two powers, besides, come 
 and go, in the hope that the will will make 
 them partakers of its enjoyment. If the Lord 
 accords them a small part of this heavenly 
 food, they stop; if not, they go off again to 
 seek elsewhere. So credulous are they, that 
 they flatter themselves they are rendering a 
 service to the will by laying its happiness 
 before it, but often they are doing it an 
 injury/' l 
 
 Further on, in the eighteenth chapter, the 
 Saint speaks of the prayer of union belonging 
 to perfect Contemplation, and thus describes 
 the total suspension of the powers which is 
 characteristic of this kind of prayer: " All 
 the soul's powers lose their natural activity 
 and are so suspended that they have not the 
 slightest knowledge of their own operations. 
 If one has been previously meditating on some 
 mystery, it becomes effaced from the memory 
 
 1 Vie par elle-meme, ch. 14, t, I, p, 149, 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 49 
 
 as completely as if it had never existed. If 
 one has been reading, all remembrance of 
 the matter disappears and the mind can no 
 longer be fixed upon it. It is the same with 
 vocal prayers. The memory, like a persist- 
 ent butterfly, here finds its wings burnt and 
 can no longer flit hither and thither. The 
 will is doubtless engaged in loving, but 
 without understanding how it loves. As to 
 the understanding, if it understands, it does 
 so in an unknown manner and it cannot com- 
 prehend what it understands. . . . That 
 is a mystery where I lose myself.' ' 1 
 
 The total or partial suspension of the powers 
 is, as we have seen, the characteristic of Con- 
 templation and distinguishes it from Super- 
 natural Recollection. 
 
 1 Vie par elk-mime, chJio, t. i, pp. 195, 196. 
 
50 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SIXTH CHARACTERISTIC OF CONTEMPLATION: 
 IT IS THE BEGINNING OF EVERLASTING 
 BEATITUDE 
 
 This is the common teaching of the Saints. 
 We will cite some as witnesses. St.' Gregory 
 says: " The contemplative life begins here 
 on earth, to be completed in the heavenly 
 home, for the fire of love which begins to burn 
 on this earth will be more ardently enkindled 
 when God Himself, the object of that love, is 
 seen face to face. ,, l 
 
 St. Thomas says: " Now the contemplation 
 of the divine truth is imperfect, for it is effected 
 by means of a mirror and an enigma and con- 
 sequently in Contemplation we are forestall- 
 ing, as it were, the eternal beatitude which 
 begins here below, to be completed in the life 
 to come.' ' 2 
 
 St. Bonaventure writes: 3 " The contempla- 
 tive life begins on earth and becomes perfected 
 in our heavenly home. Love indeed is a fire 
 
 1 Horn. XIV. super Ezech., post med., Paris, 1571, t. 2, p, 141. 
 
 2 2 a 2 ae , q. 180, a. 4, in corp. 
 
 8 De Bono Sapienticz, cap. 4, in fine, t. 7, p. 639 and 340. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 51 
 
 which begins to burn in this life and which 
 will become more inflamed once it has seen its 
 divine object. The works of the active life, 
 says St. Gregory in his Morals, come to an 
 end with the body, but the joys of the con- 
 templative life become greater at the moment 
 of death. At that moment they will not be 
 lessened, but will last forever. That is what 
 the Psalmist says: ' Better is one day in Thy 
 courts above thousands.' 1 In this seventh 
 day, whose end shall be marked by no even- 
 ing, the contemplative soul indeed finds 
 eternal rest in the Spirit which has shed upon 
 it His seven gifts, saying with the Psalmist: 
 1 This is my rest for ever and ever; here will 
 I dwell, for I have chosen it.' " 2 
 
 St. Teresa, when speaking of a soul which 
 is entering upon the way of Contemplation, 
 says: " The soul takes flight and gradually 
 rises above its misery, and God gives it some 
 knowledge of the happiness of everlasting 
 glory." 3 I have chosen this from among the 
 numerous testimonies borne by the Saint, as it 
 shows that even the first stages of Contempla- 
 tion savor of life eternal. 
 
 l Ps. 83: 11. 2 Ps. 131: 14. 
 
 8 Vie par elle-mtme, ch. 14, p. 150. 
 
52 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 And lastly, St. John of the Cross who, 
 on the contrary, was elevated to the highest 
 degree of Contemplation, says: " I am 
 tempted to believe that at the moment of the 
 awakening which puts the soul in possession 
 of this delightful sight, God, so to speak, 
 draws aside from the separating veils, so that 
 more facility may be given for seeing what 
 He is. Then this adorable Face, shining 
 with grace and beauty, allows the rays to 
 appear and just be seen. I say just be seen, 
 as all the veils have not entirely disappeared, 
 since that of faith is never torn in this 
 life." * 
 
 Besides, in order to be better convinced of 
 the truth of this point, it suffices to contrast 
 the different characteristics of eternal happi- 
 ness and Contemplation. In Contemplation, 
 it is true that God is always seen by means of 
 a mirror, in an enigma, while in Heaven, He 
 is seen face to face, this constituting an essen- 
 tial difference. The analogy is, however, suf- 
 ficient for us to be able to say with much 
 truth: Contemplation is the foretaste of the 
 eternal happiness of the Saints. Let us 
 examine this statement in detail. 
 
 2 Viveflamme d' amour, strophe 4, vers 1, t. 4, p. 629. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 53 
 
 In the first place the essential object of 
 knowledge and love in eternal beatitude is 
 God, Creator and sovereign Lord of all 
 things. It is the same in Contemplation. 
 
 In the second place, the Vision of eternal 
 beatitude is an act of the intellect, unique 
 and everlasting, 1 where that which God sees 
 in Himself is the subject of Contemplation, 
 that is, the infinite fulness of His Wisdom, 
 Power, Beauty, Goodness, Being, Life — in a 
 word, all Perfection. The knowledge of God 
 in Contemplation is a simple, prolonged act 
 of the understanding, comprising in an emi- 
 nent degree in its simplicity all that the varied 
 consideration of the Divine Perfections would 
 teach us. 
 
 In the third place, love in eternal beatitude 
 is a unique and eternal act of the will, com- 
 prising in its eminent simplicity all the per- 
 fections claimed by its object, which is God. 
 This love thus includes complacency insati- 
 able of praise, a boundless benevolence, and 
 almost infinite respect. In Contemplation, 
 love is a simple and prolonged act com- 
 prising in an eminent degree praise, benevo- 
 lence, zeal for God's glory, conformity to His 
 
 1 St. Thomas, i a 2 ae , q. 3, a. 2, ad. 4. 
 
54 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 Will, and the respect and gratitude due to 
 His Divine Majesty. 
 
 In the fourth place, the peace of eternal 
 beatitude is infinite in its depths, immutable 
 in its permanency, eternal in its length; 
 while, in Contemplation, the soul enjoys a 
 peace whose depth, extent and constancy sur- 
 pass all feeling. 
 
 In the fifth place, the joy of eternal beati- 
 tude is such that no idea of it can be formed 
 on earth, in accordance with the words of 
 St. Paul: " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither hath it entered into the heart of man 
 what things God hath prepared for them 
 that love Him." 1 The heavenly joy tasted 
 in Contemplation is so great that no tongue 
 could explain it to those who have not experi- 
 enced it. 
 
 Lastly, in the sixth place, in eternal beati- 
 tude knowledge, love, peace and joy are 
 showered upon the soul by the Holy Ghost, 
 while in Contemplation the soul has only to 
 receive these same infused graces without 
 work or fatigue. 
 
 1 1 Cor. 2 : 9. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 55 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 DEFINITION OF CONTEMPLATION 
 
 In consequence of what has just been said, 
 Contemplation may be defined as: "A simple 
 and loving gazing upon God, where the soul, 
 suspended as the result of the admiration and 
 love it feels, learns to know God experiment- 
 ally and in profound peace enjoys the begin- 
 ning of eternal beatitude." 
 
 To take these different points in turn. 
 
 i . A Simple and Loving Gazing upon God 
 
 The soul's spiritual gaze is simple, in that 
 it is an act of faith wonderfully elevated 
 by wisdom and consequently made without 
 reasoning. It is loving, because the soul 
 does not only contemplate God on account 
 of His indescribable beauty, but also on 
 account of the love which it bears Him. 
 Hence there is a twofold difference between 
 Contemplation and Meditation : in the latter, 
 reasoning is employed; while in the former, 
 there is no reasoning. Again, in Meditation 
 the knowledge of God is sometimes unaccom- 
 
56 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 panied by any warmth, whilst in Contempla- 
 tion it is always surrounded by love. 
 
 2. The Soul is Suspended as the Result of the 
 
 Admiration and Love It Feels 
 
 The suspension of its powers is total in per- 
 fect, partial in imperfect, Contemplation. 
 This it is which constitutes the essential dif- 
 ference between Contemplation and Super- 
 natural Recollection, where the powers remain 
 quite free. 
 
 3. The Soul Learns to Love God Experimentally 
 
 Just as we learn to know colors, sounds, 
 scents, and in general, the properties of bodies 
 experimentally by means of the senses of the 
 body; in the same way, by means of the 
 spiritual senses, wonderfully perfected by 
 wisdom, we learn to know God by experience. 
 This way of learning to know God by means 
 of the ineffable sweetness of Divine love, as 
 honey is known by its sweetness, is much more 
 perfect, noble and delightful than a knowl- 
 edge gained by a series of arguments. It 
 rests upon faith, which always keeps the first 
 place in the order of knowledge and which, 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 57 
 
 as regards its essence, is common both to Con- 
 templation and Meditation. 
 
 4. The Soul Enjoys Profound Peace 
 
 In Contemplation, at least when it is per- 
 fect, the soul forgets all things relating to this 
 earth — the cause of a thousand cares and 
 worries — to attach itself to God alone, in 
 Whom it finds a home of undisturbed rest. 
 
 5. The Soul Enjoys a Beginning of Eternal 
 Beatitude 
 
 This foretaste essentially differs from the 
 beatitude itself, for there is an abyss between 
 seeing God face to face and contemplating 
 Him in a picture. Yet so great is the delight, 
 that those souls who have experienced it cry 
 aloud spontaneously: " If this happiness 
 were to last always, this would no longer be 
 earth, but Heaven! " 
 
58 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INFUSED CONTEMPLA- 
 TION AND THE ACTIVE CONTEMPLATION OF 
 ST. IGNATIUS's EXERCISES 
 
 First as to their definitions: infused Con- 
 templation when reduced to what is essential 
 may be defined as: u The soul's simple gaze 
 upon God, accompanied by admiration and 
 love and the suspension of its powers; " while 
 the active Contemplation of St. Ignatius's 
 Exercises is: "A peaceful work accompanied 
 by the understanding, giving birth in the soul 
 to admiration and love of God and His works." 
 
 These two kinds of prayer differ in the five 
 following points : 
 
 i. Difference of work. The knowledge and 
 the love of God in infused Contemplation 
 are showered upon the soul by the Holy Ghost 
 and being thus exempt from work, it belongs 
 to the passive order. In the active Contempla- 
 tion of the Exercises, the knowledge and love 
 are produced by repeated acts of the intellect 
 and will. This is of the active order then and 
 is always accompanied by more or less tiring 
 work. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 59 
 
 2. Difference of simplicity. The intellect 
 knows God by intuition alone in infused Con- 
 templation, while in the active Contemplation 
 of the Exercises, on the contrary, there are 
 always distinct acts of reflection and reasoning. 
 It is the same with the will; in the former, 
 there is but one affection, as the result 
 of which the heart loves a Good including 
 all good; in the latter, on the contrary, the 
 affections are always manifold. 
 
 3. Difference of light in the intellect and 
 warmth in the will. Everything, however sub- 
 lime, that is contained in books, everything, 
 however profound, that reflection teaches of 
 the Divine attributes, pales indeed before that 
 which the soul, raised to infused Contempla- 
 tion, understands in its simple and general 
 view of its Creator. As regards the will, its 
 sole act of general love fires it much more than 
 all the other separate acts of the affections that 
 it could make. This difference arises from the 
 gift of wisdom at once dazzling with light and 
 glowing with love, perfecting the faith and 
 charity of passive Contemplation to a wonder- 
 ful extent. This is not so in the active Con- 
 templation of the Exercises. 
 L And all this, without detracting from the 
 
60 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 intrinsic perfection and merit of the acts of 
 faith and charity, which can be more perfect 
 and more meritorious in active than in passive 
 Contemplation. Here I am speaking only of 
 the increase of light and heat. 
 
 4. Difference in the liberty of the soul's 
 powers. In infused Contemplation, admira- 
 tion and love suspend, at least partially, the 
 intellect and the will; while in active Con- 
 templation, on the contrary, admiration and 
 love never go so far as to check the liberty of 
 these powers. 
 
 5. Difference of preparation. The acts of 
 active Contemplation may always be pro- 
 duced with more or less facility by the help of 
 the grace which God refuses to no one. It is 
 equally possible with practice to succeed in 
 making them more readily and easily. With 
 infused Contemplation it is different, for the 
 acts characteristic of it cannot possibly be 
 made without the assistance of a grace which 
 is God's entirely free gift to those to whom 
 He wills to give it. 
 
 A real likeness between these two kinds of 
 Contemplation must, however, be recognized; 
 in both are found, though in very different 
 degrees, peace, tranquillity, rest of the soul, 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 61 
 
 admiration and love of God and His works. 
 From this Suarez concluded that the active 
 Contemplation of the Exercises of St. Ignatius 
 is excellent of its kind, the reason he gives 
 being that an ordinary mental prayer is more 
 perfect in proportion as it more nearly ap- 
 proaches its type, infused Contemplation. 1 
 We are entirely of his opinion, but without 
 prejudice to the other methods of active 
 prayer taught by the Saints. 
 
 1 Suarez, De oratione, i, 2, c. 11, N. 10, t. 14, p. 168, and De 
 religione Soc. Jesu, 1, 9, c. 6, Nn. 9 and 11, t. 16, pp. 1039, 1040. 
 
62 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 HOW THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF CONTEMPLA- 
 TION, ONE PERFECT AND THE OTHER IM- 
 PERFECT 
 
 There are four main distinctions between 
 perfect and imperfect Contemplation: 
 
 i . In imperfect Contemplation, the powers 
 of the soul are not completely suspended in 
 God and consequently can still turn more or 
 less to different objects. For instance, the 
 soul may revert to itself and examine what is 
 taking place within it, it may entertain pious 
 thoughts of which God is not the immediate 
 object, or may even think of non-religious 
 subjects, in other words, have distractions 
 which must be banished. On the other hand, 
 in perfect Contemplation the suspension of 
 the powers is complete, and in consequence 
 it is impossible for the soul to revert to itself 
 and to have any other thought, even a pious 
 one, which might distract it from God. 
 
 2. The soul, in imperfect Contemplation, 
 is united to God in a wonderful way, but not 
 so as to transform it, while in perfect Con- 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 63 
 
 templation, on the contrary, the soul is trans- 
 formed in God. 
 
 By means of a well-known comparison, an 
 attempt may be made to gain some idea of 
 this transformation: bring water close to a 
 fire and it is heated, but never transformed 
 into fire; on the contrary, plunge a piece of 
 iron into a furnace and it soon becomes filled 
 with the light and heat of the fire and, with- 
 out ceasing to be iron, it is, as it were, trans- 
 formed into fire. This is a feeble image of 
 the soul in perfect Contemplation when, 
 plunged in the Divinity which fills it with 
 warmth and heat, it is as if transformed in 
 God without losing its nature. Our Lord, 
 when speaking to St. Teresa of perfect 
 Contemplation, says: " The soul is entirely 
 consumed, My daughter, so as to be more 
 deeply immersed in Me; it is no longer the 
 soul which lives, but I who live in it: as it 
 cannot understand what it hears, it is hearing 
 and yet not hearing." * 
 
 St. Bernard explains this doctrine with a 
 master's touch in a passage celebrated for 
 its beauty: " When, then, shall my soul, 
 elated with divine love, forgetful of and 
 
 i Vie par elk-m&me, ch. 18, t. i, p. 195, 
 
64 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 despising itself as a useless vessel, soar up 
 to God, unite itself to Him and having become 
 but one spirit with Him, say: My flesh and 
 my heart have failed! God of my heart and 
 my portion forever! Blessed and holy do I 
 call him to whom it has been granted to 
 experience something similar in this mortal 
 life, even once, secretly and for a single instant ! 
 To be so carried away that one's existence 
 seems to have ceased, to be no longer con- 
 scious of self, but, as it were, destroyed and 
 annihilated, this is the result of a heavenly 
 intercourse and not of human affection. . . . 
 O pure and holy love! O sweet and fragrant 
 affection ! O union purified and freed from all 
 earthly attraction ! by so much the more pure 
 and free, as it is without any admixture of 
 self-love; by so much the more fragrant and 
 sweet, as all savors of the Divine; to reach 
 this stage is to become God-like. Just as a 
 tiny drop of water poured into a large quan- 
 tity of wine seems to disappear, taking the 
 taste and color of the wine; as iron when 
 plunged into the furnace seems to lose its 
 nature and become in all respects like fire; 
 and as the air which is penetrated by the 
 light of the sun is transformed into light 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 65 
 
 itself, so that it seems to give rather than 
 receive light; so it is with those holy people 
 in whom all human affection becomes assimi- 
 lated in some indescribable way and changed 
 into the will of God." 1 
 
 3. Imperfect Contemplation is the begin- 
 ning of angelic speech, but perfect Contempla- 
 tion goes much farther and makes one the 
 rival of Angels. 
 
 During this mortal life we cannot produce 
 acts of the intellect without the help of images 
 which accompany the acts, as a shadow follows 
 the body. 2 The Angels, on the contrary, 
 make no use of images; hence a Contempla- 
 tion is more angelic in proportion as the soul 
 is freed from the assistance of the imagination. 
 
 In imperfect Contemplation, the images 
 used are few ; the soul departs from its human 
 method of acting, to begin to speak in an 
 angelic way. In perfect Contemplation, the 
 soul makes no use of images, but holds con- 
 verse with God in the same way as the Angels. 
 
 Listen to what St. Bernard says: 3 " May 
 my soul die, if one may so speak, the death of 
 
 1 De diligendo Deo, c. 10, initio. 
 
 2 St. Gregory of Nazianzen, Or alio 2 de theologia. 
 8 Sermo 52 in Cant, } circa med. 
 
66 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 the Angels, so that by losing the remembrance 
 of things present, it may strip itself not only 
 of the attraction to things inferior and cor- 
 poreal, but still further, of their images. May 
 it thus hold pure co ; munion with those 
 whose rival it is by reason of its purity. Con- 
 templation, it seems to me, consists entirely 
 or for the most part in such rapture. For 
 not to be hindered during life by the attraction 
 of earthly things is the character of human 
 virtue, but to be free from bodily images 
 while meditating is the result of angelic purity. 
 11 Both one and the other are a grace from 
 God, both are ecstasies in which one is carried 
 out of oneself, but in the former, far away, 
 and in the other, near. Happy is the one 
 who can say: ' I have gone far off, flying 
 away, and I abode in the wilderness.' 1 He 
 was not satisfied with having gone out of him- 
 self, but has been far from himself, so as to 
 be able to rest. You have risen above the 
 seductions of the flesh in such a way as to 
 be delivered from its lusts and no longer 
 hindered by its charms. Here there is prog- 
 ress and separation, but you are not yet 
 removed to a distance as long as you have 
 
 1 Ps. 54 : 8. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 67 
 
 not freed yourself, by purity of spirit, from 
 bodily images which take you on all sides. 
 Do not promise yourself rest yet. You are 
 mistaken if you think you will find lower than 
 this the place of rest, the secret of solitude, 
 the serenity of light, the dwelling-place of 
 peace. But give me someone who has reached 
 this stage and I will not hesitate to admit 
 that he is at rest and can say with truth: 
 1 Turn, my soul, into thy rest, for the Lord 
 hath been bountiful to thee! ' " * 
 
 4. Imperfect Contemplation may last for 
 a considerable time, whilst perfect Contempla- 
 tion is always of very short duration. St. 
 Teresa says that at first perfect Contempla- 
 tion never lasted more than the time of a 
 Hail Mary 2 in her case and that she never 
 knew it to last more than half an hour. 3 
 
 This short duration, however, does not 
 prevent the effects of perfect Contemplation 
 from being much greater than those of imper- 
 fect Contemplation, for the soul's sanctifica- 
 tion depends less on the duration of the grace 
 than on its penetrating effects, as is seen 
 in the case of the Apostles on the day of 
 Pentecost. 
 
 1 Ps. 114 : 7. 2 Vie par elle-mtme, ch. 4, p. 37. 
 
 * Ibid., ch. 18, p. 194. 
 
68 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 FIRST DEGREE OF IMPERFECT CONTEMPLATION: 
 PRAYER OF QUIET 
 
 Mystical writers include rather a large 
 number of degrees in imperfect Contempla- 
 tion. I limit myself to the following: the 
 prayer of quiet and spiritual intoxication. This 
 is enough for direction in the majority of cases. 
 Let us take the prayer of quiet first. 
 
 It is so called because its characteristic is 
 a profound peace, filled with sweetness, which 
 arises in the depths of the soul and extends 
 to all its powers and at times overflows upon 
 the senses. 
 
 Since all the powers are not entirely sus- 
 pended, the soul is still able to produce some 
 distinct affections, but it should only make 
 such as it feels impelled to by grace, and 
 further, it ought to proceed with such calm- 
 ness and gentleness as in no way to disturb 
 the delightful rest to which it has been led 
 by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Listen to what St. Teresa says: " In this 
 prayer of quiet the soul should proceed with 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 69 
 
 gentleness and without commotion. By com- 
 motion I mean the search made by the intel- 
 lect for thoughts and considerations in thanks- 
 giving for this benefit, and the confused 
 accumulation of one's sins and faults one 
 upon the other in proof of the soul's unworthi- 
 ness. All this picture becomes stirred up in 
 the soul, the mind depicts it and memory 
 torments you with it. In my own case, at 
 least, there are times when these two powers 
 tire me immensely and although my memory 
 is weak I cannot check it. The will must 
 then persist in its repose, understanding that 
 no good is effected with God by means of 
 violence ; it would be like throwing great logs 
 of wood on the spark which will most likely 
 be extinguished by them. 
 
 11 When convinced of this truth, let the 
 soul say with humility: ' Lord, what good 
 can I do here? What relation is there 
 between a slave and his master, between 
 earth and heaven? ' or other words which 
 arise spontaneously. Above all, let the soul 
 feel the truth of what it says and not be made 
 uneasy by the intellect, which is only a dis- 
 turber of its peace. Often while the intellect 
 is straying, the will finds itself in this union 
 
70 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 with God and enjoys it in profound peace. 
 As it would be useless to try to fix the intellect 
 and so share the happiness with it, the will 
 will do better to leave it to its digressions and 
 continue to enjoy this interior pleasure, at 
 the same time keeping recollected like the 
 prudent bee. For if the bees all went in pur- 
 suit of each other instead of some remaining 
 in the hive, how would the honey be made? 
 . . . Seeing ourselves so close to Our Lord 
 we ought to beg graces, pray for the Church, 
 for those who have recommended themselves 
 to our prayers, for the souls in Purgatory, 
 and all this without the noise of words, but 
 with the keen desire of being heard. Such a 
 prayer comprises much and obtains much 
 more than all the considerations possible to 
 theintellect. ,,1 
 
 St. Jane Frances de Chant al also speaks 
 of the prayer of quiet in the following terms: 
 " My mind, as regards its acuteness, remains 
 in the simplest concord, but is not united, 
 for when it wants to make acts of union, as 
 it does only too often on certain occasions, it 
 feels the effort and clearly perceives that it 
 cannot unite itself, but can only remain united. 
 
 1 Vie par elle-mime, ch. 15, t. 1, pp. 161, 162. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 71 
 
 The soul would not wish to stir beyond that, 
 does not even think of it and does nothing 
 but force more profoundly and yet most 
 imperceptibly into its depths the desire that 
 God may do with it and all creatures and all 
 things what He pleases. The soul would 
 make no other exercise but this for the morn- 
 ing, Holy Mass, preparation for Holy Com- 
 munion and thanksgiving for all blessings. 
 Lastly in all things it would wish only to 
 remain in this simple unity of spirit with God, 
 without looking beyond, and in this state some- 
 times to say the Our Father for everyone, for 
 individuals and for itself, without diverting 
 its glance in any way, nor considering why 
 or for whom it is praying. Often, according 
 to the occasion and the necessity or the un- 
 sought affection which comes to it, the soul 
 melts away in this unity." 1 
 
 The repose cannot be permanent with souls 
 raised to the grace of infused Contemplation. 
 " There are certain souls," says St. Teresa, 
 11 who, when they have arrived at the prayer 
 of quiet and have begun to enjoy its delights, 
 imagine that it is very well to enjoy it always, 
 
 1 Lettre d, saint Frangois de Sales, 29 Juin, 1621, Plon, 1877, 
 t, 4» P- 550. 
 
72 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 but I beg of them, as I have done elsewhere, 
 not to entertain that idea. This life is long 
 and to endure its trials with perfection we 
 need to consider how Jesus Christ, our Divine 
 Model, bore those with which He saw Himself 
 overwhelmed." x 
 
 The usual prayer of these souls is Super- 
 natural Recollection, joyous or sorrowful 
 according as God manifests Himself to the 
 soul, making it feel the indescribable tender- 
 ness of His Love or reproving it for its faults ; 
 giving it a foretaste of heaven or making it 
 realize the sadness of its exile. In general 
 the Recollection is accompanied by sadness, 
 for, since the soul has many faults, it is in 
 a state of purification, which must of neces- 
 sity be painful. But even then the Recollec- 
 tion always brings a vigorous love and pro- 
 found peace to the soul. These souls are also 
 tried by spiritual aridity, which is necessary 
 to keep them humble and make them under- 
 stand from experience how incapable they are 
 of raising themselves by their own efforts to 
 any supernatural state. 
 
 1 Chdteau interieur, 6 e demeure, ch. 7, t. 3, p. 487. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 73 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE OTHER DEGREE OF IMPERFECT CONTEM- 
 PLATION: SPIRITUAL INTOXICATION 
 
 This kind of prayer is much less frequent 
 with contemplative souls than the Prayer of 
 Quiet. This chapter, however, will be devoted 
 to it, so as to prevent the illusions which 
 easily arise in it. 
 
 Spiritual Intoxication is such fervent devo- 
 tion of love that the soul can hold it in only 
 with difficulty. St. Teresa describes it as 
 follows: "An effusion of praise in God's 
 honor, but irregular, unless the Lord Himself 
 puts it in order, for the intellect is, to say the 
 least, useless in that respect. The soul, 
 carried out of itself, excited by the sweetness 
 of its transports, longs to raise its voice in 
 hymns of praise. The flowers have already 
 half opened their calix and begun to spread 
 their perfume. Here the soul would wish to 
 be seen by all creatures in order to make 
 known His glory to them, so as to be able to 
 unite with them and offer God their praise in 
 concert. It longs to share with them a happi- 
 
74 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 ness beneath the weight of which it sinks. . . . 
 It would wish to possess a thousand tongues 
 with which to praise the Lord. It utters a 
 thousand holy follies, but which go straight 
 to the mark, charming Him Who has brought 
 this about. ... A soul when in this state 
 sees clearly that the Martyrs did scarcely any- 
 thing of themselves in supporting their tor- 
 ments, since this unswerving courage came 
 to them from another source. But then, what 
 suffering when the soul, awakened from its 
 ecstasy, sees itself condemned to live on in 
 this world, under the sad law of cares/ ' l 
 
 In this kind of prayer, the powers are not 
 entirely suspended and consequently the intel- 
 lect and the will can still act. Hence reason 
 must regulate the fervor of devotion, or the 
 soul is only dispensed from this in the one 
 case of perfect Contemplation, where God 
 substitutes His infinite Wisdom for the 
 human reason buried in Him. 
 
 The control exercised by the reason ought, 
 in the first place, to have the effect of pre- 
 venting this overflowing joy from appearing 
 in public: when one does not feel master of 
 one's exterior actions, one ought to seek pri- 
 
 1 Vie par elle-mtme, ch. 16, pp. 172, 173. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 75 
 
 vacy. Further it ought, even in private, to 
 regulate the actions of the body so as to pre- 
 serve to them all fitting propriety. Do not 
 let it be said that this fervor, as it comes from 
 the Holy Ghost, is perfect in all its mani- 
 festations. When God gives an abundance 
 of food to the body, does He not always give 
 the charge to the soul of moderating the use 
 of it, in accordance with the rules of temper- 
 ance? In the same way, when He lavishly 
 grants the heavenly wine which intoxicates, 
 He leaves the care and duty of moderating 
 its fire to reason. 
 
76 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 FIRST DEGREE OF PERFECT CONTEMPLATION: 
 SIMPLE UNION 
 
 There are two degrees of perfect Con- 
 templation: simple union and ecstatic union 
 or spiritual betrothal. Let us begin by simple 
 union. 
 
 It is characterized by the four properties 
 of perfect Contemplation of which we have 
 spoken: 1 the total suspension of the soul's 
 powers, its transformation in God, intercourse 
 with God after the manner of the Angels, 
 and short duration Nothing more ; the body 
 does not lose its sensibility as in ecstasy. 
 
 St. Teresa describes its wonderful fruits 
 of sanctity as follows : 
 
 Having called to mind by means of a grace- 
 ful comparison how the silkworm, wrapped 
 in its cocoon, as it were in its tomb, dies and 
 is there transformed into a beautiful white 
 butterfly, the saint passes from the metaphor 
 to the reality and thus continues: " Let us 
 see now what this mystical worm becomes 
 
 1 See ch. 12. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 77 
 
 once it has ceased to live, for it is with the 
 intention of arriving at this point that I have 
 been speaking up to the present. Scarcely 
 has it made its entry into this elevated species 
 of prayer before it dies entirely to the world 
 and is transformed into a beautiful white 
 butterfly. O wonder of the Divine Power! 
 And who could worthily depict the state of 
 a soul which has seen itself so closely united 
 to God, and, as it were, buried in His great- 
 ness even for a short space! For this time, 
 to my mind, never lasts a half hour. I tell 
 you, indeed, that this soul no longer knows 
 itself. There is as much difference between 
 what it was and what it is, as between the 
 ugly worm and the white butterfly. This 
 soul has no knowledge of how it has merited 
 such a great happiness, or rather, whence it 
 has come, for it sees clearly that it was not 
 in the least deserved. It feels a consuming 
 desire to praise God and suffer for Him a 
 thousand deaths, if that were possible, and 
 at the same time a burning thirst arises within 
 it to endure heavy crosses for its Beloved. It 
 burns with a desire of doing penance and an 
 incredible love for retirement and solitude. 
 In short, the soul so ardently_wish.es that God 
 
78 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 may be known and loved by all men, that it 
 cannot endure to see Him offended without 
 feeling intense pain. . . . Wings have been 
 given to it. How, being able to fly, could it 
 be satisfied with going step by step? All that 
 the soul does for God in this new state seems 
 nothing in comparison with what it would 
 like to do. . . . 
 
 " The soul ardently desires to leave this 
 world, which disgusts it, and if anything can 
 soften the hardships of its exile, it is the 
 thought that it is detained here by God's 
 Will. . . . This suffering causes the soul to 
 shed copious tears each time it turns to 
 prayer. This weeping no doubt arises from 
 the interior'martyrdom which the soul endures 
 in seeing that God is so seriously offended 
 instead of being honored as He should be, 
 and that so many unbelievers and heretics 
 are lost. What afflicts it more than anything 
 else is the loss of Christian souls. Doubtless, 
 the soul knows that, since God's mercy is 
 infinite, these souls may be converted and 
 saved in spite of their irregular life and yet 
 it still fears that many are to be damned. O 
 wonderful effect of God's grace! Only a few 
 years or, may be, days ago, this soul thought 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 79 
 
 only of itself. Who then has given it these 
 lively and noble feelings which could not be 
 acquired by many years of meditation, how- 
 ever carefully made? How then, some one 
 will say, if I give all my attention for several 
 years to the consideration of what an evil sin 
 is ; that those who are lost are children of God 
 and my brethren; that being surrounded by 
 so many dangers in this unhappy life, it is 
 best for us to quit it ; will these considerations 
 not be enough to procure me such feelings? 
 No, my daughters, they are not enough. The 
 sorrow experienced by he soul which is ele- 
 vated to this ntimate union with God is very 
 different from that which we can excite in 
 ourselves by our own efforts. By means of 
 long meditation it is within our power, I 
 admit, to experience a certain suffering, but 
 it is far from equalling that wh ch is experi- 
 enced in the state of which I am speaking. 
 This latter penetrates our heart and seems to 
 tear and bruise our soul without any co- 
 operation on our own part and often even 
 against our will. What is this suffering, and 
 what is its cause? I will tell you, my Sisters. 
 Remember these words of the Spouse in the 
 Canticle . . . : ' The Lord brought me into 
 
80 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 the cellar of wine and has in a holy manner 
 inebriated me with His love.' * That is exactly 
 what happens here." 2 
 
 Union is a rare favor especially to souls 
 who have only just entered upon perfect Con- 
 templation. " There are some souls," says 
 St. Teresa, " who after they have been raised 
 by Our Lord to perfect Contemplation always 
 want to remain in that state, but that is im- 
 possible. ... In the beginning, after the 
 first time, one year or even many years may 
 elapse before He again grants us this favor." 3 
 
 The usual method of prayer is therefore 
 Supernatural Recollection, sometimes joyful, 
 sometimes sorrowful, but more perfect than 
 in the case of those souls who have not gone 
 beyond imperfect Contemplation. 
 
 It is not unusual with such souls for the 
 Recollection to be raised to a very intimate 
 union of the will with God, while the under- 
 standing and the memory remain quite free 
 in their action. This favor is most often 
 granted to apostolic men, such as St. Francis 
 Borgia, who, were they more transported, 
 
 1 Cant. 2 : 4. 
 
 2 Chdteau interieur, 5 e demeure, ch. 2, pp. 392-397. 
 * Ibid., 6 e demeure, ch. 7, pp. 482, 484. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 81 
 
 could not fittingly exercise their office. Here 
 is what St. Teresa says on this subject: iA It 
 sometimes and even often happens that the 
 soul clearly understands that its will alone 
 is united to God, at least so it seems to it, 
 and that this power only is occupied with 
 Him without being able to turn to any other 
 object, whilst the two other powers, of the 
 understanding and the memory, remain free 
 to act and work in God's service. In a word, 
 Martha and Mary go together. Being ex- 
 tremely surprised to experience this, I asked 
 Fr. Francis Borgia if it was not an illusion. 
 He told me no, and that it often happened 
 to him." 1 
 
 Lastly, these souls have their times of spir- 
 itual dryness, which are necessary to make 
 them understand their weakness and thus 
 keep them humble. 
 
 1 Lettre au pere Rodrigue Alvarez, t. i, p. 380, 
 
82 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 SECOND DEGREE OF PERFECT CONTEMPLATION: 
 ECSTATIC UNION OR SPIRITUAL BETROTHAL 
 
 Ecstatic Union differs from Simple Union 
 in that not only the powers of the soul are then 
 suspended, but the external senses also lose 
 activity. Thus one no longer sees, hears or 
 feels. Ecstatic Union is, as it were, the en- 
 trance hall to the consummated union or 
 spiritual marriage, for ecstasies are inter- 
 views between God and the soul, which is 
 there fired by a love strong as death, and 
 where the soul finds the courage to persevere 
 in the midst of the great trials through which 
 it must pass in order to arrive at this Divine 
 marriage. When the ecstasy is brought about 
 instantly, instead of gradually, it is called 
 Rapture. 
 
 The Saints who have treated of this matter 
 from their own experience, say that in ecstasy 
 the soul is, so to speak, separated from the 
 body. This expression is very correct since 
 the body becomes insensible and so, dead, as 
 it were, and consequently separated from the 
 soul. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 83 
 
 They say too that in ecstasy the soul is 
 separated from the spirit, understanding by 
 the word soul the inferior, and by the word 
 spirit, the superior part, in accordance with 
 the language of Holy Writ: "For the word 
 of God is living and effectual and more pierc- 
 ing than any two-edged sword : and reaching 
 unto the division of the soul and the spirit. 1 
 This expression is again quite correct, for the 
 soul in ecstasy holds converse with God after 
 the manner of the angels, that is, by means of 
 its intellect and will alone, while the imagi- 
 nation and sensitive appetite being deprived 
 of all activity are, as it were, dead and con- 
 sequently as if separated from the spirit. 
 
 In ecstasy and Rapture the knowledge of 
 God is not only confused, as formerly, but 
 usually clouded and yet so marvellous that 
 it produces a regard for God which infinitely 
 surpasses all other regards, such an ardent 
 love that one would lay down one's life a 
 thousand times to fulfil God's least desire. 
 
 We see in Holy Writ that God surrounded 
 Himself with darkness when He wished to 
 give a high idea of His infinite greatness, which 
 no intellect could understand. Thus He 
 
 2 Heb. 4 : 12. 
 
84 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 spoke to Moses and Job from the midst of 
 darkness and on the day of the dedication of 
 the Temple, a cloud filled the Lord's house, 
 so that Solomon cried out: " The Lord said 
 that He would dwell in a cloud." x 
 
 Something similar but of a much higher 
 nature takes place in Ecstasy. 
 
 Let us hear what the Saints say: "The 
 soul," says St. Teresa, " knows that it only 
 wishes its God, but it loves nothing in par- 
 ticular in Him. It loves all that there is in 
 Him but does not know what it loves." 2 
 
 " I very often see God in darkness," says 
 Blessed Angela of Foligno, " and in this Good 
 which can neither be conceived nor expressed, 
 in this most certain Good, which appears to 
 me only encompassed with darkness, is placed 
 all my hope. In seeing It I possess all that I 
 want; in It I see all good. . . . My soul sees 
 nothing of which it can speak, nothing even 
 which can be conceived, and, in seeing nothing 
 I yet see all things. This Good is the more 
 certain the more it is obscured and it exceeds 
 all things in proportion as it appears more in 
 darkness and more hidden. . . . God has 
 
 1 Exod. 19 : 9; 3 Kings 8 : 12. 
 
 2 Vie par elk-meme, ch. 20, p. 320. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 85 
 
 given me frequent and indescribable proofs of 
 friendship. He has spoken the sweetest and 
 tenderest words to me, He has overwhelmed 
 me with graces and benefits; but all these 
 favors are small in comparison with the 
 Good which I see in this deep obscurity.' ' x 
 
 The obscurity of the Divine Vision is not, 
 however, always continuous in Ecstasy. Just 
 as when the sky is clouded, the clouds part 
 and let the blue sky be seen, so in Ecstasy 
 God at times dispels the encircling darkness 
 to disclose to the soul such exalted wonders 
 oi His Divinity that no tongue can repeat 
 them. 
 
 God then wishes to arouse in the soul an 
 ever-increasing desire of the Consummated 
 Union, where the obscurity will permanently 
 disappear, in so far, at least, as the state of 
 faith allows in which one always remains here 
 on earth. 
 
 " Although God then seems a long way 
 off," says St. Teresa, " yet He often dis- 
 closes His sovereign Greatness in such a 
 wonderful way that it surpasses all our con- 
 ceptions. Words, too, are wanting to ex- 
 
 1 Vieecrite par le frere Arnauld, ch. 4, Bollandistes t. 1, p. 197, 
 nn. 172, 174. 
 
86 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 press it and it is necessary, in my opinion, 
 to have experienced it, to understand and 
 believe it. The end of such lofty intercourse 
 is not to console, but to show the soul how 
 justly it is distressed at seeing itself separated 
 from the presence of a Good which includes 
 within Itself all other goods/ ' x 
 
 Nor is this all: In Ecstasy God sometimes 
 discloses not only something of the unfathom- 
 able depths of His Divinity, but also, in a 
 secondary way, the marvels of His Omnip- 
 otence in the Court of Heaven. 
 
 St. Alphonsus Rodriguez describes one of 
 these Raptures in which the soul contemplates 
 some of the secrets of Heaven in the following 
 passage, speaking of himself in the third per- 
 son: " As he had retired to his room to medi- 
 tate upon Our Lady's Death and Assumption 
 and to consider the number of Angels w r ho 
 assisted at it, he saw how Our Lady's most holy 
 soul was transported to Heaven at the moment 
 of her death, accompanied by a numerous 
 band of rejoicing Angels, and how, on her 
 arrival, the heavens opened to receive their 
 Queen. He followed them in spirit and was 
 never separated from them, so that he saw 
 
 1 Vie par elle-meme y ch. 20, t. 1, p. 218. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 87 
 
 the Angels enter Heaven with their precious 
 treasure. This was the first feast that the 
 Angels kept in honor of God's Mother after 
 she had left the earth. 
 
 11 A second feast immediately followed, for 
 when the Mother of God had entered Heaven 
 accompanied by this band of Angels, she was 
 greeted by another countless multitude of 
 heavenly spirits who were waiting for her 
 as their Queen and Sovereign. What a recep- 
 tion that was, what feasts and rejoicing the 
 Angels made in her honor! These things 
 cannot be described, for they are the feasts 
 of Heaven given by its blissful inhabitants 
 to their Sovereign Lady, the Mother of God 
 Himself, and they can be better realized and 
 understood in spirit when God communicates 
 them to the soul in Rapture (for I believe this 
 person was out of his senses) than they can be 
 related. It is impossible for man to justly 
 describe them, for he is corporal and these 
 feasts are spiritual. 
 
 " A third feast more solemn, than the pre- 
 vious ones took place when the most Holy 
 Virgin, after this glorious reception, was again 
 transported by the Angels and presented to 
 the Blessed Trinity. Then the joy and happi- 
 
88 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 ness of all the inhabitants of Heaven were so 
 great that they all united in one great concert, 
 after the manner of spirits and not as men. 
 
 " This person saw the feast as though he 
 had been present at it, rejoicing to find him- 
 self in company with the Angels and par- 
 taking of their joy. The intellects of all men 
 taken together would not suffice to under- 
 stand how it was done, for this feast in no way 
 resembled that which is given in honor of 
 earthly kings. Although there were countless 
 Angels, although their place of dwelling was 
 immense, although they were so scattered, 
 each one enjoyed the heavenly concert and 
 partook of the spiritual joy of the feast as if 
 they had formed but one. And this person 
 enjoyed it much, for he was in the midst of 
 them. He saw them all at a glance, how they 
 rejoiced and feasted in their Sovereign Lady's 
 honor. 
 
 V He also distinguished each one of these 
 blessed spirits individually, as if his soul had 
 been wholly and entirely at one and the same 
 moment in each one and in all and he enjoyed 
 to the full, without losing the least pleasure, 
 the solemn feast held in honor of our Virgin 
 Queen. ... As the Contemplation of these 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 89 
 
 things took place in Heaven, evidently he was 
 transported and there was nothing corporeal 
 about it, but all was purely spiritual. He 
 does not remember how long the Rapture 
 lasted." 1 
 
 Ecstasy is exposed to more than one illusion. 
 First, the devil may act upon the body, taking 
 from it all the power oisensation. Those pres- 
 ent, seeing the body become insensible, believe 
 it is an Ecstasy, while in reality it is nothing 
 but the devil's act. " When then," says St. 
 Francis of Sales, " you see a person who has 
 Raptures during prayer, as the result of which 
 he starts out of himself and rises above him- 
 self to God and yet has no Ecstasy in his life, 
 in other words, does not lead a noble life of 
 attachment to God by denying worldly desires, 
 mortifying his will and natural inclinations 
 by interior gentleness, simplicity and humility, 
 and above all, by continual charity, you may 
 be sure, Theotimus, that all his raptures are 
 very doubtful and dangerous. They are Rap- 
 tures calculated to win men's admiration, but 
 not to sanctify them. For what good can 
 it do a soul to be transported to God in 
 
 1 Vie de saint Alphonse Rodriguez par lui-mdme, pp. 8-H, 
 Retaux, 1890. 
 
90 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 prayer if in its conversation and life it is 
 transported by worldly, base and natural 
 affections? To be above oneself in prayer 
 and lower than oneself in life and act, to be 
 an angel in Meditation and an animal in Con- 
 versation, is to hop from side to side, to swear 
 by God and by Melchon; in a word it is a 
 sure sign that such Raptures and Ecstasies 
 are only the amusements and tricks of the 
 evil spirit/ ' * 
 
 Weakness arising from a sickly constitution, 
 when the slightest thing causes a swoon, may 
 be the second cause of illusion. A super- 
 natural grace even of a very inferior order, 
 which would only slightly affect a robust 
 constitution, produces so great an effect upon 
 such a nature that a fainting fit follows. 
 One might be mistaken and believe it an 
 Ecstasy. In order to judge correctly, remem- 
 ber the two following remarks: 
 
 A true Ecstasy usually lasts but very little 
 time, while this false Ecstasy, on the contrary, 
 lasts hours. In the former, the powers are 
 dead to all created things, but alive, beyond 
 all description, to God and things divine. On 
 the other hand, in cases of fainting, the powers 
 
 1 Amour de Dieu, i : 7, ch. 7, t. 5, p. 30, 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 91 
 
 are benumbed and receive no impression, 
 neither of creatures nor of God Himself. 
 When it has been proved that in a certain 
 person's case Ecstasies are only fainting-fits, 
 every possible means must be taken to put 
 a stop to them. 
 
 Souls raised to Ecstatic Union are not 
 exempt from dryness, this trial being neces- 
 sary to keep them in humility and to help 
 them to purify their intention. But God 
 almost always leaves them the feeling of the 
 entire conformity between their will and that 
 of God. This feeling has no longer any sweet- 
 ness, it is true, and therefore fear, weariness, 
 sadness and repugnance still continue, but 
 it wonderfully strengthens the will, and the 
 soul should esteem it greatly. Let not the 
 soul lose sight of this precious conformity, 
 but make use of it in union with Our Lord, 
 Who, being sad even unto death, said: 
 " Father, not My will but Thine be done! " 
 
 Listen again to what St. Teresa says; 
 11 This is the state in which my soul chances 
 to find itself at rare intervals: for three, four 
 or even five days, fervor, visions, in a word 
 all blessings are not only taken away, but 
 become so wiped from my memory that even 
 
92 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 when I try I cannot remember the least bless- 
 ing that I have received. All seems to me a 
 dream, in so far, at least, that I cannot remem- 
 ber anything ; my bodily sufferings overwhelm 
 me all at once; my spirit is troubled, I can 
 entertain no thought of God, and I do not, 
 in a way, know under what law I am living. 
 If I read, I understand nothing of what I 
 read. I see myself full of imperfections and 
 without courage to acquire virtue. The great 
 courage which I usually possess so entirely 
 disappears that I should be unable to resist 
 the least temptation, it seems to me, or any 
 word that was spoken against me. The 
 thought then comes to me that I am no good 
 for anything and that it was a mistake to 
 raise me out of the beaten track. The thought 
 that I am deceiving all those who have a good 
 opinion of me, saddens me, and I would like 
 to go and hide myself somewhere where no 
 one would see me. It is not virtue that then 
 makes me long for solitude, but cowardice. 
 Finally, I feel inclined to abuse all those who 
 would contradict me. But in the midst of 
 this struggle God grants me this grace: the 
 thought that I am not offending Him more 
 than usual. Far from asking Him to deliver 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 93 
 
 me from this torment, I am ready to endure 
 it until the end of my life and I accept it 
 with all my heart. My only prayer is that 
 He may sustain me by His strength, so as 
 not to offend Him in anything. Lastly, I 
 consider it a very great grace that He grants 
 me, not to leave me always in such a state." l 
 
 1 Account given to St. Peter of Alcantara, Lettres de sainte 
 Thirese, t. I, pp. 10, II. 
 
94 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 CONSUMMATED UNION OR SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE 
 
 Consummated Union differs from Contem- 
 plation in four points : 
 
 i. The darkness which exists in the pre- 
 ceding degrees disappears, giving place to a 
 clear vision of God, as far, of course, as the 
 obscurity of faith, which ceases to exist only 
 in Heaven, will allow. God is always seen 
 in image, but this entirely spiritual image 
 sometimes reaches such perfection that the 
 unity of Nature and the distinction of Persons 
 in the mystery of the Blessed Trinity is clearly 
 seen. No Angel could effect such a wonder, 
 but only God's Omnipotence, without the 
 intervention of any creature. 
 
 2. The powers of the soul are no longer 
 suspended and the senses of the body preserve 
 their liberty and activity. From which it 
 results that he who has received this signal 
 grace can converse with men, doing so as the 
 Guardian Angels, whom the sight of God face 
 to face does not prevent from assisting the 
 souls that are entrusted to them. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 95 
 
 And rising higher, in this Divine state the 
 soul is the living, admirable, image of Our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, Who while on earth en- 
 joyed the Beatific Vision and yet taught His 
 well-beloved Apostles and conversed famil- 
 iarly with them. 
 
 3. The union of the soul with God is no 
 longer transitory, as in the preceding degrees, 
 but permanent: everywhere and always the 
 soul feels God dwelling within it and treating 
 it with unheard-of familiarity. From time 
 to time He rouses it by such loving peace 
 and sweetness that no tongue can express its 
 feelings, while He sometimes wounds it spirit- 
 ually very deeply but quite painlessly. 
 
 And here the question may arise whether, 
 in the case of souls who have reached this 
 sublime state, the permanence of the union 
 is so great that they are confirmed in grace. 
 The Saints are not unanimous on this point, 
 but in practice the question becomes sim- 
 plified, for God usually adds to the first 
 benefit of Consummated Union, a second 
 favor, that of a distinct revelation of salvation. 
 So these souls are sure of going to Heaven, 
 if not in virtue of Consummated Union, at 
 least on account of revelation. 
 
96 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 St. John of the Cross thus pictures the 
 delightful death of these privileged souls: 
 " The death of these persons is accompanied 
 by wonderful sweetness, far surpassing all 
 that they have ever experienced in the whole 
 of their spiritual life. They die in a state of 
 Rapture wonderful to behold, and of the 
 sweetest attacks of love, like the swan, whose 
 song is sweetest when it is about to die. This 
 it is that made David say that the death of 
 the just man is precious in the sight of God. 
 Floods of love then burst from the soul to be 
 lost in the Divine Ocean of Love. There in 
 their extent and power they seem seas." l 
 
 4. The passions are entirely subject to the 
 reason, and the reason to Cod. Divine Wis- 
 dom, from time to time, permits their revolt, 
 it is true, so as to remind the soul of what it 
 owes to grace and thus to keep it humble. But 
 these rebellions are short. The soul quells 
 them and watches the tempest rage beneath it. 
 
 These chosen ones of God are not, however, 
 exempt from suffering. It could not be other- 
 wise, for Our Lord, who was raised to the 
 Beatific Vision, was at the same time the Man 
 of Sorrows. But their suffering is accompa- 
 
 1 Vivflamm$ d' amour, strophe 1, vers 6, t. 4, p. 478. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 97 
 
 nied by so much peace and such entire sub- 
 mission to God's Will that the suffering may 
 be said to have lost its sting. 
 
 St. Teresa describes this state, which is 
 quite Divine, as follows: " Whether it be in 
 Prayer of Union or in Ecstasy, Our Lord 
 unites the soul to Himself, by rendering it 
 blind and speechless, like St. Paul at the 
 moment of his conversion. He so entirely 
 deprives it of all feeling that it can understand 
 neither the nature of the favor which it enjoys, 
 nor how it enjoys it, since the excessive pleas- 
 ure it experiences in seeing itself so close to 
 God suspends all its powers. Here, God's 
 action is different. In His Goodness, He 
 makes the scales fall from the eyes of the soul 
 in His wish that by a way, which is in truth 
 most extraordinary, it should discover and 
 understand something of the graces with 
 which He deigns to honor it. Having ad- 
 mitted it into His own dwelling place, He 
 accords it an intellectual vision of the highest 
 order. By representing the truth in a par- 
 ticular way, the Three Persons of the Most 
 Holy Trinity are shown to it. By reason of 
 the wonderful power of perception which is 
 then granted to it, it sees the Three Persons 
 
98 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 distinct one from the other and yet under- 
 stands with supreme truth that They all Three 
 are but one and the same Substance, Power, 
 Wisdom and God. So that what we know 
 in this world by the light of faith, the soul by 
 reason of this light understands from what, 
 as we may say, it has seen. . . . There the 
 Three Adorable Persons are communicated to 
 the soul, speaking with it and giving it to 
 understand Our Lord's words in the Gospel: 
 1 If any man love Me, he will keep My word, 
 and My Father will love him and We will come 
 to him and will make Our abode with him/ l 
 " After the soul of which I have spoken 
 has received this favor, its amazement grows 
 daily, for it seems that these three Divine 
 Persons have never left it. It sees clearly, 
 in the way stated before, that the three Divine 
 Persons are within its soul, in its very depths 
 and, as it were, in a profound abyss. . . . 
 Perhaps it seems to you, my daughters, that 
 when the soul is in this state it ought to be so 
 absorbed that it can give its attention to 
 nothing else. You are mistaken. It turns 
 more easily and more ardently than formerly 
 to all which concerns God's service and as soon 
 
 1 John 14 : 23. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 99 
 
 as it is freed from occupations it remains in 
 this pleasant company. God will never, in 
 my opinion, fail to give the soul this intimate 
 and manifest sight of His presence, if it re- 
 mains faithful to Him." 1 
 I " Do not imagine, my Sisters, that the souls 
 which are united to God by the bonds of this 
 Spiritual Marriage always feel the effects of 
 this sublime favor to such a high degree as this. 
 It is only most usually so, as I have mentioned 
 when it has occurred to me to do so. Our Lord 
 sometimes leaves them in their ordinary state 
 and it seems to them that then all the venom- 
 ous animals which are in the neighborhood of 
 the castle or in the castle itself, unite together 
 to avenge themselves on these souls for the 
 time when they were unable to attack them. 
 It is true that this state of things does not 
 last for more than a day and this great trouble, 
 usually brought about by some unexpected 
 incident, makes the soul realize how much 
 it gains by living in the company of its God. 
 Strengthened by its Divine Spouse, the soul 
 not only remains firm in its good resolutions 
 and faithful to all which concerns His service, 
 but feels more than ever determined to serve 
 
 1 Ch&teau intirieur, f demeure, ch. I, t. .3, pp. 530, 531, 532. 
 
100 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 Him, without even being overcome by a first 
 movement. This trial, as I have just said, 
 is sent only at rare intervals. Our Lord's 
 wish. in sending it is first, that the sight of 
 their own nothingness may always keep these 
 souls humble; and secondly, that the knowl- 
 edge of what they owe Him and the sub- 
 limity of the favor with which He honors 
 them, may oblige them to praise Him more 
 and more.' ' x 
 
 This state of Spiritual Marriage is the 
 highest to which one can attain on earth. This 
 does not mean, however, that all the souls who 
 attain to it are more perfect than the canon- 
 ized Saints who have not. Sanctity of state 
 does not indeed always bring about an equal 
 proportion of personal sanctity. It is a matter 
 of faith, for instance, that the state of virginity 
 is more perfect than the married state, and yet 
 there are married women who are more holy 
 than those in a state of virginity. So let not 
 souls raised to so sublime a state rest there 
 as if they had arrived at their goal, which is 
 Heaven; but let them exert themselves to 
 make progress in sanctity, in the same way as 
 the dawn grows to mid-day in a cloudless sky. 
 
 1 Chdteau interieur, 7* demeure, ch. 4, t. 3, pp. 553, 554. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 101 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE WOUNDS CAUSED BY LOVE 
 
 The wounds caused by love are not the 
 same in nature as visions and revelations, 
 which do not of themselves make us holy. 1 
 
 These wounds form part of Contemplative 
 Graces which increase the sanctity of the soul 
 receiving them. They are very powerful in 
 inflaming the heart with a love of wonderful 
 purity and ardor, and ought to be much es- 
 teemed. Divine Goodness grants them in 
 general only to those souls who have attained 
 to perfect Contemplation and so it is fitting 
 that they should be spoken of here. 
 
 The wound caused by love is essentially 
 spiritual, that is, it is always felt in the higher 
 part of the soul. In reality it is a sublime 
 kind of spiritual touch of which mention has 
 been made before. 2 
 
 Most often, this wound is made only in the 
 spirit, but sometimes the body too is wounded. 
 This latter is generally effected by an Angel, 
 as in the case of St. Francis' sacred stigmata 
 
 1 See Part 4, ch. 1. 2 Se© Part 1, Ch. 6. 
 
102 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 which were imprinted by a Seraph, and the 
 pain which results becomes more intense in 
 proportion as the interior joy increases. At 
 length, a thrice blessed moment arrives when 
 all the soul's suffering disappears and one 
 seems to have found perfect happiness, al- 
 though the body endures fearful torment. 
 God wishes by this means to show His infinite 
 Power, which can make a soul unspeakably 
 happy amid the ocean of bodily suffering in 
 which it is plunged. 
 
 " Then," says St. John of the Cross, " the 
 more intense the delight and the force of love 
 causing the interior wound, the greater too 
 the suffering of the external wound ; one grows 
 in proportion to the other . . . O immense 
 Greatness, which showest Thyself omnipotent 
 in all that Thou dost! Who, O Lord, if not 
 Thou, could fill with sweetness in the midst 
 of bitterness; with joys, in the midst of tor- 
 ments." l 
 
 The wound in St. Teresa's heart, the feast 
 of which is celebrated on August 27, was both 
 spiritual and corporal. The corporal wound 
 is venerated in the monastery of Albe where 
 
 1 Vive flamme d y amour, strophe 2, vers 2, (Euvres, t. 4, pp. 
 499 1 500- 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 103 
 
 the upper part of the heart seems pierced hori- 
 zontally. The Saint describes the mysteri- 
 ous mixture of joy and suffering which accom- 
 panies the wound in these terms: " Close 
 beside me on my left I saw an Angel under 
 a bodily form. ... He was not tall, but small 
 and very beautiful. It was evident from his 
 face all aglow with light, that he was one of 
 the spirits of a very high choir, who are 
 apparently only fire and love, and this one 
 was apparently one of those called cherubim. 
 ... In this Angel' s hand I saw a long golden 
 dart, the point of which was of iron, tipped 
 with fire. From time to time he thrust it 
 through my heart, right down to my entrails, 
 which it seemed to me he removed when 
 withdrawing the dart and left me all inflamed 
 with love of God. The pain of this wound 
 was so sharp that it forced from me the faint 
 moans of which I spoke but now. Yet this 
 indescribable martyrdom made me experience 
 at the same time the sweetest joys. Besides, 
 I could neither wish it to cease nor find any 
 happiness outside of my God. It is not a 
 corporal, but entirely spiritual suffering, al- 
 though the body does not cease to partake of 
 it to a great degree. An intercourse of love 
 
104 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 then exists between the soul and God, so 
 delightful that it is impossible to describe 
 it." i 
 
 In this wound caused by love, the suffering 
 is seen not only to have been bodily, but more 
 especially spiritual. This arose from the fact 
 that the Saint's soul was not entirely cleansed 
 of its numerous imperfections, which more 
 or less impede the arrow of the Holy Ghost. 
 St. Teresa was then forty-four years of age. 
 Seventeen years later, when God had entirely 
 purified her by the purgatory which she 
 describes in the twentieth chapter of her life, 
 the dart of love met no obstacle and the 
 spiritual wound, for the future free from suffer- 
 ing, became the source of delights of such 
 heavenly sweetness that no tongue could 
 describe them. 
 
 The Saint thus describes it under the name 
 of the Penetrating Touch: " If it happens that 
 they (the souls raised to the grace of Spiritual 
 Marriage) are not attentive to the presence 
 of their Divine Spouse, He Himself rouses 
 them and they see quite clearly that this 
 intimate transport (I know not what other 
 name to give it) arises from the interior of the 
 
 1 Vie par elle-meme, ch. 29, pp. 360, 361. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 105 
 
 soul like those impetuous transports of which 
 we have spoken. This outburst so full of 
 sweetness proceeds neither from the spirit 
 nor the memory nor from anything to which 
 the soul lends the slightest cooperation. The 
 soul feels it so often that it very easily notices 
 it. . . . All pain that could be endured here be- 
 low would be still, to my mind, too generously 
 rewarded by these so sweet and penetrating 
 touches of His love." l 
 
 St. John of the Cross pictures the perfect 
 wound caused by love in somewhat different 
 terms: " The soul experiences somewhat the 
 same sensation as if a grain of mustard almost 
 imperceptible, but yet endowed with great 
 properties and burning power, had been placed 
 in the very depths of the spirit which has been 
 wounded. The substance and force of the 
 grain are then secretly spread through all the 
 soul's spiritual veins with all the power and 
 ardor which it contains. Its love increases, 
 develops and becomes so inflamed that it 
 seems to see within it seas of fire filling it 
 throughout with love. . . . Few souls, indeed, 
 reach such high perfection, but yet some are 
 found. They are especially those whose vir- 
 
 1 Chateau interieur, y e demeure, ch. 3, p. 548. 
 
106 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 tue and spirit must be perpetuated to the 
 spiritual children who are to succeed them." l 
 
 The souls favored by this wound of love 
 in such a high degree are in reality extremely 
 rare, but yet in the Church, the Spouse of 
 Jesus Christ, there will always be souls 
 wounded in a wonderful way by the Holy 
 Ghost, whose prayers are exceptionally power- 
 ful with God. The spiritual wound of love 
 in such souls follows the course which we have 
 just described: it begins by a mixture of joy 
 and suffering; then the pain caused by im- 
 perfections gradually diminishes until it disap- 
 pears, while delight increases. As regards the 
 bodily sufferings which sometimes accompany 
 the spiritual wound, ^they generally increase. 
 These souls have a positive need of direction 
 and support, especially in the beginning. 
 
 The wound of love is always accompanied 
 by exceptional virtue. What then must be 
 thought of a pious person who has exteriorly 
 the stigmata and no extraordinary degree of 
 virtue? It would be a contradiction of what 
 the Saints tell us of themselves or of others 
 and consequently such a favor is to be mis- 
 trusted, since its author may be the devil. 
 
 1 Vive fiamme oV amour, strophe 2, vers 2, t. 4, pp. 497, 498. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 107 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 god's works may be the object of infused 
 contemplation 
 
 It sometimes happens during Contempla- 
 tion that the Holy Ghost sheds a precious 
 light upon the soul with regard to Our Lord's 
 life, the meaning of a verse of Scripture, in a 
 word, on some revealed truth. Such knowl- 
 edge is an entirely free gift which the Divine 
 Goodness grants as and where it wills. 
 
 More usually, however, the contemplative 
 soul enjoys only a general, loving view of God, 
 when, in undisturbed peace, it drinks long 
 draughts of the living waters of wisdom and 
 love. Yet from time to time a new light does 
 not fail to rise upon a mystery, as for instance 
 on Our Lord's Nativity. God and the mys- 
 tery are then seen in the same light of wisdom 
 which, like a sun shining with knowledge and 
 bathed in love, shows the soul how admirable 
 is the Creator of all things and His work, and 
 how worthy of being loved. This elevated 
 way of learning to know the mysteries of faith 
 in admiration and love admits of two degrees 
 of perfection. 
 
108 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 In the first, wisdom discovers nothing new 
 to the understanding, but gently recalls to the 
 memory truths already learnt in previous 
 reading and meditation. St. Jane Frances 
 de Chantal mentions this in a question put 
 to St. Francis of Sales: " I do not want to 
 forget this, because I have often been troubled 
 about it. All preachers and all good books 
 teach that one should consider and meditate 
 upon Our Lord's benefits to man, His Great- 
 ness, our Redemption, especially when Holy 
 Church places them before us. Yet the soul, 
 which is in the above state, cannot do so in any 
 way in spite of the will to make the effort and 
 is often troubled on this account. But still 
 it seems to do so in a very good way by simply 
 recalling or picturing the mystery with much 
 tenderness, and with sweet and attractive 
 affections." * 
 
 The second degree is much superior; not 
 only does the sweet and warm light of wisdom 
 illumine what was already known, but the 
 Holy Ghost further discovers wonderful secrets 
 which were unknown. As to cooperation 
 with this grace, the soul at first only responds 
 by admiration and silence, allowing time for 
 
 1 (Euvres, Plon, 1845, t. 2, p. 45. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 109 
 
 this new knowledge to become imprinted upon 
 the understanding. Afterwards it praises 
 God for the incomparable beauty of His works 
 and having enjoyed both affective and effect- 
 ive love, it surrenders itself to Him Who has 
 enraptured it. 
 
 Formerly, when the soul succeeded by 
 means of reason or reflection in discovering 
 by its own effort something which made it 
 know its subject a little more, it found pleasure 
 and spiritual profit in it. Now that a new 
 light has risen, that which it could learn by 
 means of a reasoned discourse seems very 
 poor in comparison with what it sees and feels. 
 It feels no attraction for the old method. 
 
 There is, however, one point on which in- 
 fused light is as a rule insufficient: that of 
 the details of practical resolutions. God does 
 not usually disclose to a contemplative soul 
 in a direct way all the means which it must 
 take to correct its faults and to acquire the vir- 
 tues which it lacks. He leaves it to act itself 
 by reflection and reasoning. 
 
 Serious attention must be given to this both 
 during prayer and at other times, when the 
 grace of Contemplation has disappeared for 
 a time. 
 
110 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 This excellent way of learning to know 
 Our Lord's life and the sayings of Scripture 
 is present in all degrees of extraordinary 
 prayer, from Supernatural Recollection to 
 Consummated Union, but not in the same 
 perfectness. The knowledge is by so much 
 the more perfect as the corresponding prayer 
 is of a higher degree. St. Ignatius, in a letter 
 to St. Francis Borgia, points out how most 
 precious light with regard to the respect due 
 to Holy Church and those who rule her is shed 
 upon the soul raised to perfect Contemplation. 
 His words are: " The happiest and most 
 beatific (method of prayer) in this life, that 
 which leads directly to, and is immediately 
 connected with, life eternal is the method 
 adopted by those who closely embrace those 
 holy gifts of which I have spoken and who are 
 closely united to them. By these gifts I mean 
 those which it is not within our power to pos- 
 sess just when we wish, but which are only 
 granted by the Giver of all good things and 
 Whose Almighty Power surpasses every gift : 
 such, for instance, with reference to the Divine 
 Majesty, as an intense faith, hope and charity 
 . . . elevation of spirit, Divine impressions 
 and illuminations and all other spiritual 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 111 
 
 pleasures and sentiments relative to such 
 gifts, as humility and a profound respect for 
 Holy Mother Church, for those who govern 
 her and for her teachers." x 
 
 St. Teresa uses the following words when 
 speaking of that special and more elevated 
 knowledge which the soul receives in perfect 
 Contemplation: " As far as I can judge, the 
 soul is entirely out of itself and God then dis- 
 closes wonderful things to it. When it has 
 returned to itself, it draws so much advantage 
 from the marvellous things which it has seen, 
 that all that is earthly seems to it but mud. 
 It thus conceives such a disdain for what it 
 formerly held in esteem that it supports life 
 only with pain. God seems to have wished 
 to teach it something of the beauty and rich- 
 ness of that happy country where it will one 
 day dwell; just as by means of the spies sent 
 by the Israelites, He made known to His 
 people the fertility of the Promised Land. 
 He acts in the same way towards this soul 
 in order that it may joyously bear the weari- 
 ness of so painful a journey, having obtained 
 a view of that happy goal where eternal rest 
 awaits it." 2 
 
 1 Lettres, Lettre 58, p. 269. 
 
 8 Chdteau interieur^ 6 e demeure, ch. 5, t. 3, p. 465. 
 
112 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 But nothing equals the perfection which 
 these special ideas attain in mystic Consum- 
 mated Union. There they seem bathed in 
 indescribable light, cloudless peace and never- 
 ending rest. Here is what St. Ignatius has 
 left in his private notes found after his death : 
 11 I did not, as on the previous days, see the 
 Three Persons (of the adorable Trinity) dis- 
 tinct, but in a brilliant light, One Essence 
 which attracted me wholly and entirely to 
 Its Love. In the same way I felt as if I were 
 under the shelter and guidance of Jesus, which 
 did not in any way diminish my total union 
 with the Divine Majesty; on the contrary, 
 this union rather increased.' ' * 
 
 In short, in extraordinary prayer the knowl- 
 edge of a mystery, say the Nativity, is never 
 separated from a general loving view of God, 
 but these two distinct objects appear, as it 
 were, x bathed in the same light of wisdom. 
 
 When the sun rises above the horizon, its 
 pleasant, timid rays light up at one and the 
 same moment both the infinite space of the 
 heavens and the object under our eyes. 
 Nevertheless, the sight of the heavens arouses 
 a much deeper admiration than that of the 
 
 1 Bollandistc, Vie de St. Ignace, t. 34, p. 540, n. 628. 
 
NATURE OF PRAYER 113 
 
 object. It is the same in Contemplation: 
 Wisdom, like to a sun shining with knowledge, 
 is enkindled with love, illuminating both the 
 infinite perfections of Our Lord's Divinity 
 and Nativity: but the general view of God 
 arouses an incomparably greater admiration 
 than the special view of this mystery. "These 
 two kinds of knowledge/' says St. John of the 
 Cross, " are a source of power to the soul; yet 
 nothing is to be compared to the joy which 
 the knowledge of God procures. Words fail 
 to express the rapturous delight one drinks 
 in in Him." l 
 
 This method, namely by means of Contem- 
 plation, of learning about the mysteries of the 
 Life and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, is 
 very perfect and sanctifying. The soul fa- 
 vored with this grace should receive it humbly 
 and gratefully and esteem it most highly, 
 
 1 Montee du Carmel, i : 2, ch. 26, t. 2, p. 317. 
 
PART II 
 
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 Calleb to Contemplation jffluat $ag« 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 117 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PENETRATING SIGHT OF ONE'S SINS. FEELING 
 OF HAVING BEEN ABANDONED BY GOD 
 
 Contemplation is a great exaltation for 
 the soul, since it is the beginning of eternal 
 beatitude and makes it converse with God 
 after the manner of the Angels. Hence he who 
 has been called to this remarkable favor must 
 be extremely humble, for it is written : ! 'Every- 
 one that exalteth himself shall be humbled: 
 and he that humbleth himself shall be ex- 
 alted." i 
 
 The soul's efforts, accompanied by ordinary 
 grace, will not be enough to gain such humility 
 — God's all-powerful hand must come in. To 
 this end He sheds a penetrating, supernatural 
 light upon the soul which shows it its least 
 defects and so covers it with confusion. 
 
 Nor is that all, for this same light further un- 
 veils to it God's infinite greatness, and the soul 
 thus experiences in the beginning an inexplic- 
 able uneasiness, like that of a pretentious ig- 
 noramus in the presence of a great scholar. 
 
 1 Luke 18 : 14. 
 
118 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 Sometimes this constraint increases to such an 
 extent that the soul becomes crushed beneath 
 the weight of the Divine Majesty. Later on, 
 just as the ignorant man made timid by the 
 learned professor finishes by losing the easy 
 use of his faculties, so the soul overwhelmed 
 by God's Greatness, loses the easy use of its 
 memory, understanding and will. 
 
 Let us hear what St. John of the Cross says: 
 14 God alone is the author of this painful situ- 
 ation, in which the soul can do nothing. In- 
 capable of giving itself to prayer or lending 
 continuous attention to things spiritual, it is 
 equally powerless in attending to temporal 
 matters. While plunged in profound abstrac- 
 tion, its memory is often at fault and whole 
 minutes elapse before it knows whether it has 
 done or thought such and such a thing. In 
 spite of all its efforts, it cannot fix its mind on 
 the present action, nor on that which is to 
 follow." i 
 
 This supernatural light shows the soul not 
 only God's infinite Greatness, but also His 
 spotless Purity, and the soul feels kept at a 
 distance; just as the man in the street feels 
 instinctively cut off from the King's palace. 
 
 1 Nmt obscure, I : 2, ch. 8, (Euvres, t. 3, p. 368. 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 119 
 
 In a word the soul sees God's infinite Justice 
 in a supernatural way by means of this light 
 and is as terrified as a great criminal before 
 his judge. 
 
 In short, the soul by comparing God's in- 
 finite Greatness with its own small ness, His 
 infinite Purity with its defilement, His infinite 
 Holiness with its iniquities, loses all feeling 
 of hope and believes that it can never reach 
 familiarity with God. This is the pain of 
 despair. All souls called to Contemplation 
 pass, to a greater or less degree, through this 
 trial of rejection by God and of despair, but 
 with souls called to perfect Contemplation it 
 attains an intensity which goes as far as a feel- 
 ing of reprobation and recalls to mind the 
 pains of Hell. Listen again to what St. John 
 of the Cross says: " This kind of torture and 
 suffering is beyond all description. . . . The 
 afflicted soul sees itself the object of God's 
 aversion and its torment is increased by the 
 firm conviction that the Lord has taken a dis- 
 gust for it, entirely abandoned it and, in con- 
 sequence, cast it into darkness. This thought 
 is the cause of the most acute and indescrib- 
 able suffering to it. ... In the midst of the 
 oppression of this Contemplation, which puri- 
 
120 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 fies it, the soul sees itself under the shadow of 
 death. It seems to share the agony and tor- 
 tures of Hell, that is, it feels deprived of God, 
 punished and repelled by Him, and it bears 
 the whole weight of His wrath. To this 
 present state is joined a fearful dread, the 
 thought that it will always last." x 
 
 But God, to Whom such a so'ul is especially 
 dear, does not wish that it should die, but live. 
 He plunges it into this abyss of humiliation 
 so as to humble it, but at the same time He 
 lifts it up in a wonderful way, by enkindling 
 in its heart a burning fire of charity, whose 
 flames leap up unceasingly. These flames are 
 recognized by the fact that the soul which is 
 submitted to this terrible trial remains quite 
 detached from creatures, always keeps its 
 thoughts fixed on God, preserves an unbroken 
 desire to please Him and an abiding deter- 
 mination to conquer itself in all things from 
 love of Him. This constant desire, it is true, 
 is a restless one, since the soul, overwhelmed 
 by the penetrating sight of its faults, thinks 
 that in all that it does it displeases God, 
 Whom it would wish so much to love, but 
 this persistent anxiety detracts in no way 
 
 1 Nuit obscure, i : 2, ch. 6, t. 3, pp. 350, 351. 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 121 
 
 either from the purity or force of its love. 
 This burning love, resulting not from lengthy 
 reflections, but from what the Holy Ghost has 
 divinely shed upon the soul, is a powerful 
 force in raising it from dejection. 
 
 An unerring direction is, however, neces- 
 sary at such a time and the choice of it de- 
 pends both upon the persons and the circum- 
 stances. 
 
 St. Francis of Sales prayed thus in his great 
 temptation to despair: " My God, if I am not 
 to love Thee in Heaven, I wish at least to 
 love Thee upon earth/ ' Others have imitated 
 him. 
 
 The same Saint so directed St. Jane Frances 
 of Chantal during her great interior suffering 
 that confidence was aroused in her by means 
 of love. Here is the summary of his great 
 principle: " The more we love God the more 
 He loves us in return and consequently the 
 greater may be the peace in which we dwell/ ' l 
 
 Venerable Father de la Colombiere directed 
 souls subjected to this test in another manner: 
 he wished to see them throw themselves into 
 the ocean of God's mercy, Who would be 
 
 1 Vie de sainte Jeanne de Chantal, par la mere de Changy, 
 deuxieme partie, ch. 32. (Euvres, Plon, t. 1, p. 327. 
 
122 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 more glorified in proportion as they were more 
 filled with miseries. 1 
 
 The same thought consoled him personally 
 in his interior suffering. 2 
 
 If the attraction of grace does not suggest 
 any special mode of direction, the ordinary 
 method must be followed, which St. Alphon- 
 sus Liguori thus formulates: " Entire resig- 
 nation to the Divine Will by offering oneself 
 without reserve to endure all these sufferings 
 and even greater ones for as long as it shall 
 please God." 3 
 
 The pain of which we speak does not make 
 itself felt in prayer only, but also in the midst 
 of one's active life. However, as the daily 
 occupations always offer some distraction, it 
 is in prayer that the suffering is especially 
 keen. It then happens that the pain caused 
 by God's abandonment becomes so acute that 
 it partially consumes the powers of the soul, 
 which can only do two things, moan and 
 resign itself, following Our Lord's example, 
 Who said in the Garden: " Father, Thy will, 
 
 1 Cf. Lettres du Ven. P. de la Colombihre, 11. 43, 44. 
 
 2 Retraite spirituelle du V. P. de la Colombiere, Premiere 
 Semaine. 
 
 3 Homo apostolicus, App. 1, De oratione contemplations, 
 n. 10, in fine, 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 123 
 
 not Mine be done," and on the Cross: " My 
 God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? " 
 
 It still remains to say a few words as to the 
 time when this terrible trial makes its appear- 
 ance and as to its duration. God does not 
 usually send a soul such interior suffering 
 unless He has prepared it for it by heavenly 
 delights; otherwise it would not have the 
 necessary courage to come out victorious. 
 As to the duration, it is always long, that is, 
 it lasts several years. 
 
 During this long period, the trial presents 
 itself in three different ways : There are some- 
 times intermittent periods of consolation; 
 sometimes rays of joy break the cloud of 
 suffering at rare intervals ; and lastly the 
 desolation is sometimes permanent and not 
 one drop of dew falls from Heaven. 
 
 One sometimes meets souls who, having 
 received once for all some supernatural con- 
 solation, afterwards remain in the state of 
 anguish just mentioned for the rest of their 
 lives. These souls may be recognized by 
 their overflowing humility, which springs 
 naturally from an abyss of confusion, and by 
 their love of God, the flames of which shoot 
 up unceasingly from the fire enkindled and 
 
124 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 fed by the Holy Ghost. The vocation of 
 these blessed souls is to preserve in the Church 
 the image of Our Lord's agony, but they are 
 very few in number. In the immense ma- 
 jority of cases, the trial ceases after a few 
 years. 
 
 This terrible interior pain has received 
 different names: St. John of the Cross calls 
 it " The Dark Night; " St. Francis of Sales, 
 " Death of the Will; " St. Alphonsus, " Super- 
 natural Aridity; " whilst the greater number 
 of writers use the general term " Purification 
 of the soul raised to the mystic state." 
 
 St. Alphonsus sums up the question in the 
 following masterful words: "It is a certain 
 Divine light by which God makes the soul 
 recognize its nothingness. 
 
 " Here the soul finds itself in a sort of ter- 
 rible agony, for although it be more determined 
 then to overcome itself and more anxious to 
 please God, yet the more it recognizes its im- 
 perfections, the more it seems rejected by God 
 and abandoned for having abused the benefits 
 received. Much more, even the spiritual 
 exercises which it performs, such as prayer, 
 mortifications, Communions, increase its sad- 
 ness. Indeed as it only accomplishes these 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 125 
 
 things with pain and great disgust, it thinks 
 they all deserve punishment and that on their 
 account it becomes more hateful to God. 
 Besides, it often seems to these souls that they 
 hate God above all things and that this is the 
 cause why God punishes them as His enemies 
 and makes them already feel in this life the 
 pains of the damned and of being abandoned 
 by God. And sometimes God allows this 
 desolation to be accompanied by a thousand 
 other temptations and impulses to impurity, 
 anger, blasphemy, disbelief, and above all, to 
 despair. Then these poor souls, who are 
 plunged in great darkness and confusion, can- 
 not distinguish the resistance of the will, 
 which really exists, but remains hidden from 
 them or at least doubtful, on account of the 
 actual darkness. They therefore fear lest 
 they have consented and consider themselves 
 all the more abandoned by God. 1 . . . " 
 
 Let the Director exhort this desolate soul 
 not to lose courage, but to wait for great things 
 from God Who is leading it by the safest road, 
 the way of the Cross. 
 
 Let him teach it also first to humiliate itself 
 as deserving of this treatment from God, on 
 
 1 Homme apostolique, App. I, n. 9. 
 
126 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 account of the faults of its past life; then, to 
 keep perfectly resigned to the Divine Will, 
 showing itself quite ready to suffer all this and 
 even more, as long as it shall please God ; and 
 lastly, to cast itself, as though dead, into the 
 arms of God's mercy, and leave itself entirely 
 to the protection of the Most Holy Virgin 
 Mary, who is rightly called: " Mother of 
 mercy and consoler of the afflicted." x 
 
 1 Homme apostolique, App. i, n. 10. 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 127 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 SECOND trial: spiritual aridity 
 
 God's custom is to grant the great grace 
 of Contemplation in a stable manner only- 
 after He has tested the soul as He tested 
 Abraham. He wishes to see, as St. Ignatius 
 says, whether it is able to make progress in 
 His service and work for His glory, when 
 deprived of these abundant consolations and 
 special favors which are not its by right. 
 Further, in order that privileged souls may 
 preserve their humility, they need to learn by 
 experience that the birth and preservation of 
 the grace of Contemplation in no way depends 
 upon them, but that it is a free gift from the 
 Divine Goodness. 1 
 
 Such are the two reasons which explain this 
 undeniable fact. Very often, especially in the 
 beginning, the grace of Contemplation is with- 
 drawn from souls which have just received it. 
 
 What are they to do when the grace of Con- 
 templation disappears? Two cases present 
 themselves : 
 
 1 Spiritual Exercises, Discernment of Spirits, Week i, Rule 9. 
 
128 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 i. The supernatural state disappears en- 
 tirely and the soul returns to its ordinary- 
 state, but without any special aridity. Then, 
 since the soul is reduced to the usual state, it 
 is clear that it ought to pray in the same way 
 as souls who have received no grace of 
 Contemplation, namely, give its time to dis- 
 tinct acts of the intellect and will. Yet here 
 a reservation must be made. It would be 
 extremely severe to oblige such souls to retain 
 nothing of the past Contemplation, not even 
 the memory. These souls privileged by God, 
 who have tasted the joys of Contemplation, 
 remember the peace they enjoyed and are led 
 to seek God in rest. Their memory records 
 the sweets of Divine love and they long to 
 revive them by devoting more time to affec- 
 tions than to reflections. This two-fold at- 
 traction, coming from the Holy Ghost, must 
 be respected. 
 
 2. Not only does the supernatural state 
 entirely disappear, but the soul languishes in 
 complete dryness. The virtues, faith, hope, 
 charity and the rest, are paralyzed, as it were. 
 One of St. Ignatius' s metaphors helps us to 
 understand this state : a perfectly healthy eye 
 sees with difficulty where the light is poor; in 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 129 
 
 the same way these virtues, even when pos- 
 sessed in a high degree, can make their acts 
 only with great difficulty, since the motive 
 grace is very weak. What is to be done then? 
 Let the soul begin by making an act of faith 
 and place itself in the presence of God, then 
 make some reflections as well as possible, 
 especially some prayers and affections. God 
 does not ask for the impossible, but is satisfied 
 with acts of humility, confidence, resignation, 
 conformity to His Will, infinitely just, holy 
 and worthy of being loved, even although 
 these different acts seem to come only from 
 the lips. 
 
 This is the method followed by St. Mary 
 Magdalen de Pazzi in the long dryness which 
 followed her numerous ecstasies: " She was 
 seen," says Fr. Cepari, " at the foot of the 
 Blessed Sacrament, sometimes rosary in hand, 
 sometimes reading vocal prayers, sometimes 
 following the history of the Passion or the life 
 of some Saint, and she was obliged to have 
 recourse to this method, even for her thanks- 
 giving after Holy Communion. One day she 
 said to one of her sisters : ' The soul which 
 has tasted how sweet the Lord is, must in very 
 truth love the Cross and have become mis- 
 
130 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 tress of itself, if it is to continue to serve God 
 in time of dryness as it did in time of Con- 
 solation.' " * 
 
 1 Vie de sainte Marie Madeleine de Pazzi, par le P. C£pari, 
 S. J. f ch. 26, PSrisse, t. 2, p. 172. 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 131 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THIRD TRIAL: TEMPTATIONS OF THE DEVIL 
 
 A king does not alight at the house of one 
 of his subjects unless it is richly furnished; 
 God does not visit a soul to unite Himself 
 with it in a very special manner unless it be 
 adorned with exceptional virtues. Now the 
 great virtues are the portion of those who have 
 heroically triumphed over the opposite temp- 
 tations. This is the reason why God allows 
 the devil to specially tempt the souls who have 
 received the gift of Contemplation and gener- 
 ously correspond with it. 
 
 The virtues attacked are first, the theologi- 
 cal virtues: Faith, by doubts as regards re- 
 vealed truths; hope, by despair; charity by 
 revolt against God and the spirit of blas- 
 phemy. Then come the temptations against 
 moral virtues, that is temptations to anger, 
 pride, gluttony, lust, independence, jealousy 
 and the rest. 
 
 All these temptations are usually found in 
 souls which are making serious progress in 
 Contemplation; so there must be no surprise 
 
132 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 when they come; nay, rather, one may 
 prophesy without fear of mistake, that they 
 will come sooner or later. 
 
 They then attack the soul with such intense 
 violence that it often fears lest it has given 
 consent to them and lost grace. This painful 
 doubt becomes the greatest suffering in this 
 terrible struggle. The best remedy is to lay 
 all bare, in perfect Christian simplicity, to a 
 learned, prudent, and experienced Confessor. 
 The light given by the Confessor, and more 
 still, the humility of the soul which lays itself 
 perfectly bare will, one day or another, obtain 
 for it the grace of victory. 
 
 These temptations are not storms of a few 
 hours nor even of a few days; they generally 
 last years. St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi 
 underwent all their fearful attacks for a period 
 of five years. 1 Generosity, then, is not 
 enough to gain the victory. In addition 
 there must be exceptional patience and per- 
 severance. Let the soul constantly renew its 
 wavering courage in the pious hope that God 
 will do great things in it after the victory. 
 Then, the more it has struggled, the more its 
 
 1 Vie de sainte Marie Madeleine de Pazzi, par le P. C£pari, 
 S. J., ch. 6, P6risse, t. i, p. 112. 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 133 
 
 virtue will shine with unspeakable brightness ; 
 then will the joys of peace succeed the trials 
 of the past struggle and its God will come 
 again to unite Himself to it in an indescribable 
 and loving intimacy. 
 
 Either as the result of the violence of. the 
 temptations or of their duration, many de- 
 fects, which until then had remained hidden, 
 will become exteriorly apparent, it is true, to 
 men's eyes and lessen the reputation for vir- 
 tue which the contemplative soul enjoyed. 
 Let it profit of such a favorable opportunity 
 of offering God the entire sacrifice of its repu- 
 tation ; let it humiliate itself at the sight of so 
 many defects of which it was ignorant and 
 look upon itself as the most unworthy of all; 
 and lastly, let it gratefully receive the warn- 
 ings given it and make serious efforts to cor- 
 rect its defects. If it really enters upon this 
 road of abnegation it will make more progress 
 in a month, in spite of the small faults com- 
 mitted, than it would have done in a year of 
 unbroken peace. The soldier who becomes 
 covered with dust in the midst of the fray 
 wins more in heroism and bravery than he 
 who rests spick and span guarding the bag- 
 gage. 
 
134 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 Here is what we read in the^life of St. Mary 
 Magdalen de Pazzi: u It would be difficult to 
 explain the disgust and repugnance with which 
 the devil inspired her for any command that 
 was given her. He sometimes used such force 
 that she could not prevent herself from 
 answering her Mother Prioress: No, Mother, 
 I cannot do what you bid. But she had 
 hardly uttered these words than she used to 
 burst into tears and loud protestations that 
 she would rather lose her life than disobey 
 her Superiors. Then throwing herself at the 
 Mother's knees, she would renew her vows. 
 This Mother, in spite of the compassion she 
 felt for the Saint, was God's instrument, and 
 wished to effect the Saint's advancement in 
 virtue by these trials. Thus the Mother used 
 to humiliate her deeply before all the Sisters 
 and impose severe penances upon her; but 
 the Saint used to submit to anything with a 
 look of happiness which greatly edified the 
 community. At last, when the five years 
 of trial had elapsed, all these temptations 
 ceased.' ' x 
 
 This would be the place to point out 
 
 1 Vie de sainte Marie Madeleine de Pazzi, par le P. CSpari, 
 S. J., ch. 6, P£risse, t. I, pp, 128, 129, 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 135 
 
 the special means which help in the struggle 
 against the different temptations, but the 
 point is treated in a great number of ascetic 
 works which may be consulted, so I shall say 
 nothing more on the subject. 
 
136 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 FOURTH TRIAL: DOUBT AS TO THE TRUTH OF 
 THE SUPERNATURAL GRACES RECEIVED 
 
 As long as the Contemplation lasts, the 
 soul does not doubt of its happiness; it feels 
 sure that it is God working within it; but 
 when this delightful moment is past, uneasi- 
 ness takes possession of it and it wonders 
 whether it has not been the victim of an 
 illusion. That trial is universal, and when a 
 soul does not experience it, the greatest 
 reserve must be shown in attributing what 
 takes place within it to a good spirit. 
 
 Yet from where can this suffering, so bitter 
 for the contemplative soul, arise? First, its 
 doubts are the natural consequence of the 
 clear view which it has of its faults. Sunk, 
 as it is, in an abyss of confusion, it cannot 
 believe that God is so kindly and lovingly 
 disposed towards it. Secondly, the devil 
 tries with all his might to increase its per- 
 plexities. Experience has taught him that 
 as long as a soul is perturbed and tossed by 
 these doubts, the graces which it receives 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 137 
 
 only produce a part of their sanctifying 
 effects. Lastly, God, for His part, allows 
 them in order to keep the soul humble and 
 wisely reserved in its judgments. If it had 
 no doubts, it would become, in its positive 
 consciousness of graces received, too positive 
 in its ideas and too decisive in speech. 
 
 When St. John of the Cross was asked his 
 opinion as to the spirit guiding a certain 
 nun in prayer, he answered that he could not 
 regard her spirit as the true spirit of God 
 " because she is imprudently secure and not 
 sufficiently fearful of being led into interior 
 error, whilst the spirit of God never proceeds 
 without this salutary fear so as to preserve 
 the soul from evil, as the Wise Man said." l 
 
 In order to conquer this trial, it is of the 
 utmost necessity to choose a learned, prudent 
 and experienced Director and obey him 
 blindly. Then this triumphant answer can 
 be made to the tempter: Like a child I am 
 obeying him whom God has given me as a 
 guide; he has told me not to doubt, so I have 
 no doubts. This simple way of submitting 
 one's judgment seems quite in conformity 
 with God's designs for the soul: He wishes, 
 
 1 Lettres spirituelles, t. I, p. 355. 
 
138 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 indeed, to make it humble, modest and do- 
 cile. 
 
 But if a soul tormented by this uneasiness, 
 which at times becomes terrible, has at hand 
 no Director capable of successfully guiding 
 it, what is to be done? If it is a soul con- 
 secrated to God in the religious life, the 
 Superiors must procure it an interview with 
 a Confessor who is experienced in these 
 matters. Thus it was that St. Teresa was 
 first reassured by St. Francis Borgia and after- 
 wards by St. Peter of Alcantara. If the per- 
 son in question is perfectly free, he must 
 himself seek out a prudent guide. Until such 
 a one has been found, he must wait, trusting 
 in Divine Providence, which cannot fail him. 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 139 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 FIFTH TRIAL: A MYSTERIOUS SUFFERING IN 
 WHICH JOY AND PAIN ARE BOTH UNITED 
 AND WHERE THE SOUL IS PURIFIED AS IN 
 A PURGATORY 
 
 The holy souls in Purgatory reach Heaven 
 only after having been entirely purified in 
 this place of suffering ; the chosen soul arrives 
 at Contemplation — the beginning of celestial 
 happiness — only after being purified in an 
 earthly purgatory. 
 
 A somewhat similar pain is experienced in 
 both these purgatories. 
 
 In the Purgatory of the other world, God 
 discloses to the souls detained there His 
 infinite Beauty, which attracts them with a 
 power that no intellect can understand; but 
 alas! the defilement of these souls is an ob- 
 stacle to the much longed for union with God. 
 It is the suffering of the paralytic, parched 
 to death and yet not able to take one step 
 towards the source of living water under his 
 eyes. 
 
 In the earthly purgatory, God discloses 
 
140 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 His indescribable Beauty in the midst of a 
 very exalted Contemplation. At the sight 
 of this Beauty, all created things lose their 
 attraction for the soul, whose one desire is 
 to be united to God, its sovereign Good. But 
 its sins rise up between it and God like a wall 
 which it cannot scale. A mysterious mixed 
 feeling of joy and suffering is the result, for 
 if, on the one hand, the sight of the sovereign 
 Good thrills the soul with joy; on the other, 
 its separation from It causes it immense 
 suffering. 
 
 St. Teresa describes this mysterious mar- 
 tyrdom in these words: " The soul suddenly 
 feels within it an indescribable longing for 
 God. Filled through and through with this 
 desire, it immediately passes through such a 
 delirium of suffering that it is raised quite 
 out of itself and above all created things. God 
 places it in such a vast desert that it could 
 not, even by making the greatest efforts, find 
 a single being upon earth to be its companion. 
 Besides, even if it could, it would not, for its 
 only aspiration is to die in this solitude. It 
 would be useless to speak of it, or for it to 
 force itself to answer; nothing can raise its 
 spirit from this solitude. Although God then 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 141 
 
 seems to me far removed from the soul, yet 
 He often discloses His sovereign Greatness in 
 such an extraordinary way that it surpasses 
 airconception. Besides, words fail to express 
 it and one must, in my opinion, have experi- 
 enced it to be able to conceive and believe it. 
 The end of such elevated communication is 
 not to console the soul, but to show it how 
 justly it is distressed at seeing itself separated 
 from the Good which includes within Itself 
 all other good. Having perceived this, the 
 soul feels both the thirst for God and the 
 severity of its solitude, increased. It is a prey 
 to such refined and piercing suffering, it feels 
 itself in such a pitiless desert, that it can say 
 literally with David: ' I have watched and 
 am become as a sparrow all alone on the 
 housetop.' x 
 
 " In this condition the soul does not seem 
 to be any longer in itself, but, like the sparrow 
 on the housetop, it dwells alone in the highest 
 part of itself, looking down upon all creatures 
 from this height; I will go further and say 
 that it is above the highest part of itself that 
 it has its dwelling. . . . From time to time I 
 remembered what St. Paul said, that he was 
 
 1 Ps. ioi : 8. 
 
142 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 crucified to the world. . . . Something of this 
 nature then takes place within the soul: no 
 consolation comes to it either from Heaven, 
 which is not yet its dwelling place, or from 
 earth, for which it has no affection and from 
 which it does not wish to receive any. It is 
 truly crucified, as it were, between Heaven 
 and earth, a prey to suffering without receiv- 
 ing any comfort either from one or the other. 
 From Heaven, it is true, there comes that 
 wonderful knowledge of God of which I have 
 spoken and which far surpasses all our desires, 
 but such a sight of God increases rather than 
 lessens its torment, because it still more in- 
 flames its desire of possessing Him. At times 
 the intensity of the suffering is such that it 
 causes the soul to lose all consciousness. True, 
 this last effect is of short duration, being, as 
 it were, the last death agony. But there is 
 such happiness in this agony of suffering that 
 I do not know with what to compare it. It 
 is an unspeakable martyrdom of combined 
 suffering and delight. Very far from wishing 
 to find the slightest relief from the pleasant 
 things the earth formerly offered it, the soul 
 cannot endure the sight of them and casts 
 them far from it with supreme disgust. It 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 143 
 
 knows well that it only wants its God, but it 
 loves nothing particular in Him; rather it 
 loves in Him all that is He, and it does not 
 know at all what it loves. . . . The powers are 
 here suspended as the result of pain, as they 
 are by pleasure in Union and Ecstasy. . . . 
 
 " As almost every new T favor that I receive 
 causes me fear, until Our Lord reassures me, 
 that of which I am speaking also caused me 
 a certain alarm in the beginning. But the 
 Divine Master told me not to be frightened, 
 but to esteem this grace more highly than all 
 the others which He had granted me. The 
 soul was cleansed by this suffering, worked 
 and purified as gold in the crucible, so that 
 God's hand might the better spread upon it 
 the enamel of His gifts; in a word, the soul 
 here endured the suffering which would have 
 been its lot in Purgatory." l 
 
 The earthly purgatory takes another form, 
 too, God casting a glance of love upon the soul 
 which attracts it with a force that no tongue 
 can describe; but the soul is too weak to fly 
 to the bosom of its God. Here again is a 
 mysterious blending of joy and suffering; for 
 if on one side God's glance is full of unspeak- 
 
 1 Vie par elle-mdme, ch. 20, pp. 218, 219, 220, 223. 
 
144 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 able sweetness, on the other the soul's weak- 
 ness prevents it from corresponding. This 
 causes terrible suffering. I will hazard a com- 
 parison. Look at a child in its cradle, whom 
 the devoted mother attracts towards her by 
 her tender glance. All the movements of 
 this little angel express its joy, but after 
 many vain [attempts, finding that its swad- 
 dling clothes prevent it from throwing itself 
 into its mother's arms, it starts crying. The 
 mother's smile causes the infant joy, but the 
 weakness which prevents it from responding, 
 suffering. 
 
 Let us hear what St. Catherine of Genoa 
 says. She first describes the suffering of a 
 holy soul in Purgatory: " God casts on it the 
 rays of His love, which inflame it, attracting 
 it towards Him with a force sufficient to anni- 
 hilate it, all immortal though it be. . . . When 
 the soul by an interior glance sees itself thus 
 attracted by God with such a burning love, 
 then in the warmth of this love enkindled by 
 its all gracious Lord and God, it melts entirely 
 away. ... It feels itself wholly consumed by 
 the desire of returning God love for love and 
 of throwing itself into His embrace. But, 
 checked by the impediment of its sins, it can- 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 145 
 
 not follow this attraction which God exercises 
 upon it, in other words it cannot reply to that 
 unitive glance which God casts upon it in 
 order to draw it to Him. ... It feels given 
 over to a suffering which no words can express 
 and it is this suffering, springing in its case 
 from everything it sees, which forms, properly 
 speaking, the pain of Purgatory/' * 
 
 The Saint then comes to the description of 
 her own earthly purgatory: " What I have 
 said about this takes place spiritually within 
 me. . . . The prison where I seem to be is 
 the world; my bonds are the fetters of my 
 body. Enlightened by grace, my soul under- 
 stands what it is to be kept a prisoner from 
 God and to find in itself the obstacle which 
 prevents its supreme happiness, and with- 
 holds it from gaining its end. As the soul is 
 delicate and sensitive in the extreme, this 
 delay is the cause of indescribable pain to it." 2 
 
 It remains for us to examine what the soul 
 must do in order to correspond with the incom- 
 parable grace of this supernatural trial which 
 always lasts some time. It is being purified 
 in the earthly purgatory; it ought, then, to 
 
 1 TraitS du Purgatoire, Bouix, 1883, p. 233. 
 
 2 Ibid., Ch. 17, p. 241. 
 
146 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 take the souls retained in the Purgatory of the 
 next life, as models. These holy souls recog- 
 nize that they are justly punished. Let the 
 soul tested on earth also recognize the justice 
 of its trial and follow their example by saying: 
 " Thou art just, O Lord: and Thy judgment 
 is right/ ' * or again: " And we indeed justly, 
 for we receive the due reward of our deeds.' ' 2 
 The holy souls in Purgatory live in a state 
 of perfect forgetfulness of creatures, having 
 but one desire, to reach perfect union with 
 God in Heaven. Following their example, 
 the soul which is made to undergo the test of 
 purification in this world, ought not to turn 
 to created things in order to find alleviation 
 for its suffering, but direct all its desires 
 towards God, saying with the Prophet: " One 
 thing I have asked of the Lord: that I may 
 dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of 
 my life." 3 And since there are two kinds of 
 union, that of interest, which is born of hope, 
 and that of disinterestedness, arising from 
 pure charity, let the soul, of course, aspire to 
 to that which will place it in possession of the 
 sovereign Good, but much more, to that which 
 
 1 Ps. 118: 137. 2 Luke 23: 41. 
 
 3 Ps. 26; 4. 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 147 
 
 will make it live no longer for itself but for 
 God. 
 
 Lastly and beyond all else, the holy souls in 
 Purgatory live in perfect conformity with the 
 Divine Will, which cleanses them in their 
 terrible sufferings. Such a high opinion have 
 they of the infinite perfection of this Divine 
 Will that the slightest impulse in opposition 
 to it has become absolutely impossible to 
 them. Let the soul who is tried on earth 
 follow their example and submit in all things 
 to God's Will, whether it be as to the intensity 
 or the duration of the suffering. This Divine 
 Will, indeed, always remains infinitely just, 
 holy and worthy of being loved, even though 
 it tests in such a fearful way. 
 
148 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 A FEW WORDS ON THE " SOUL'S DARK NIGHT," 
 BY ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS 
 
 All souls must pass through an earthly- 
 purgatory before arriving at the great grace 
 of perfect Contemplation, but all are not puri- 
 fied in the same way. St. Catherine of 
 Genoa's purification was not like that of St. 
 Teresa's in all respects, and the purgatory of 
 these two saints differs from that through 
 which St. John of the Cross passed. He 
 depicts his in a well-known work entitled: 
 11 The Soul's Dark Night." It may be useful 
 to say something about it on account of the 
 great light found there for the direction of 
 souls. 
 
 When a ray of sunshine strikes the diseased 
 eye, it burns and blinds it. Yet the light and 
 warmth of this ray are good and soothing in 
 themselves, but the eye has not enough 
 strength to receive them as such. Once the 
 eye is healed, this same ray which dazzled and 
 burnt it, gives a gentle light and warmth. 
 
 So it is with the ray of Divine Wisdom, 
 which God never sends without adding to 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 149 
 
 it the fire of His love, as we have seen. 1 
 When the Great Doctor wishes to cure an 
 ailing soul by means of interior suffering en- 
 dured with resignation, He sheds His Wisdom 
 and His love upon it in too intense a degree 
 for the soul to be able to receive them without 
 suffering. Blinded by a too vivid light, burnt 
 by a too scorching flame, the soul experiences 
 great pain. Then after long years have 
 passed, when the soul is cured of its infirm- 
 ities, that same wisdom which blinded it, 
 gently illuminates it, and that love which 
 burned it up makes it taste unspeakable 
 sweetness. Thus it is neither the wisdom nor 
 the love which change, but it is the soul which 
 is wonderfully changed by them. It passes 
 from darkness to light, from the torment of 
 the flames to the joys of sweet love. 
 
 In order to explain this mysterious puri- 
 fication due to the wisdom and love which the 
 Holy Ghost sheds upon the soul, take another 
 comparison more spiritual and therefore truer. 
 An intelligent but backward pupil attends the 
 lessons of a talented master. The intellectual 
 light which flashes from the master's mind at 
 first tires his pupil, who, not understanding, 
 
 r Part i, ch. 5. 
 
150 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 finds the time long and is humiliated by having 
 his ignorance shown him. The result of this 
 is discouragement and sometimes despair of 
 ever succeeding in understanding such a 
 master. But if the pupil perseveres, in the 
 end all is changed. The pupil's mind, when 
 trained, readily grasps the bent of his master's 
 talent, and the same intellectual light which 
 at first bored and discouraged him is now the 
 cause of joy and hope. 
 
 Such is the case of a soul adorned with con- 
 spicuous gifts of grace but yet sunk in the 
 darkness of its faults and imperfections: God 
 sends it too bright a ray of His wisdom and too 
 strong a flame of His love for its weakness. 
 Uneasiness, fatigue, confusion, discourage- 
 ment and suffering attack and overwhelm it, 
 and at such a time the powerlessness of ever 
 finding rest in the knowledge and love of God 
 is often the cause of profound despair. But 
 if the soul humbly and generously perseveres 
 for years, if it bears this terrible interior 
 suffering with resignation, it is cleansed and 
 healed and strengthened; and then, this same 
 Divine wisdom which used to blind it, this 
 love which used to burn it up, is the cause of 
 unspeakable delight. 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 151 
 
 The soul is divided into two parts, as it were: 
 one higher and spiritual ; the other lower and 
 sensible. Both have committed faults and 
 imperfections, both need to be healed and 
 strengthened. According to St. John of the 
 Cross, the Divine wisdom and love first occupy 
 themselves with the purification, cure and 
 fortification of the sensible part. This first 
 cleansing effected, there still remains another 
 and much more difficult one to bring about, 
 that of healing the spiritual part of the soul 
 in such a way that it may no longer have any 
 self-love or self-complacency. In order to 
 attain this finished perfection, God increases 
 to a frightful extent the light of His wisdom 
 which blinds, and the fire of His love which 
 burns. All the imperfection that remains 
 even in the very depths of the soul is then 
 consumed. This holocaust, however, is only 
 effected at the cost of a suffering which sur- 
 passes all conception and puts one in mind 
 of Hell. 
 
 If the soul endures this terrible trial with 
 humility, patience and perseverance, at the 
 end of the number of years settled by the 
 Divine Decree, it assuredly finds itself trans- 
 formed in God and overwhelmed with all 
 
152 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 good. The purification of the senses is the 
 gateway leading to imperfect Contemplation; 
 the purification of the spirit, that leading 
 to perfect Contemplation. • 
 
 Listen to what St. John of the Cross says 
 in describing the wonderful passing of a soul 
 from darkness of spirit to the unspeakable 
 delights of perfect Contemplation: " The 
 struggle in this warfare is terrible, for the 
 peace which is to follow and which is so 
 ardently longed for, is immense; and even if 
 the suffering is deep, piercing, extreme, the love 
 to which it leads is very deep and pure. The 
 more sublime and finished the work, the longer 
 and more painful must have been the labor; 
 the great size of a building calls for pro- 
 portionately solid foundations. . . . The soul, 
 while passing through the night of purification, 
 approaches the state of perfection where un- 
 speakable good awaits it and where its powers 
 will see themselves enriched with innumerable 
 gifts and virtues.' ' x 
 
 It remains to mention why St. John of the 
 Cross calls the ray of wisdom which purifies 
 the lower part of the soul the " dark night of 
 sense/ ' and the more powerful ray which 
 
 1 Nuit obscure, i : 2, ch. 9; t. 3, pp. 381, 382. 
 
THE VARIOUS TRIALS 153 
 
 purifies its higher part, " the dark night of the 
 spirit." As we have just seen, it is the 
 property of these two luminous rays of Divine 
 wisdom to blind the soul and cast it into dark- 
 ness. It is natural, then, to give their action, 
 that of producing darkness, the name of " dark 
 night." 
 
PART III 
 
 ©be Virtues and BeuotioroS at tofncf) a &oul 
 must £at)or if it OTiSfjes to Jflafce Serious 
 $rogregg in Contemplation 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 IN GENERAL, THE SOUL WHICH IS CALLED TO 
 CONTEMPLATION MUST GIVE ITSELF TO THE 
 STUDY AND PRACTICE OF SOLID VIRTUES 
 
 Contemplation is a look of mutual love 
 between God and the soul. Since it is by the 
 brightness and fragrance of its virtues that a 
 soul is pleasing to God, the soul called to 
 Contemplation must give itself to the practice 
 of solid virtues, of which the most pleasing 
 to its Heavenly Spouse are humility, obedi- 
 ence, brotherly love and care to accomplish 
 God's good pleasure in all things. 
 
 Let us begin with humility. The charac- 
 teristic of this virtue is that it attracts God's 
 love, as we see from the numerous examples 
 in Holy Writ, in particular from that of Our 
 Lady, who sings these words in the Magnificat : 
 " He hath regarded the humility of His hand- 
 maid." 1 
 
 Contemplation, it is true, never exists unless 
 accompanied by a holy wonder, from which 
 
 1 Luke i : 48. 
 
 157 
 
158 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 springs humility: how can the Creator stoop 
 down so lovingly to a creature filled with so 
 much misery and sin! But let no one be 
 deceived, for this humility, shed upon the 
 contemplative soul by the Holy Ghost, is only 
 a gentle and beneficial rain from the clouds. 
 Now, if the rain is not to evaporate and be 
 useless, it is not enough that it should be 
 abundant, but the gardener must also labor 
 to make it penetrate the ground. 
 
 The contemplative soul, then, must labor 
 apart from prayer, where it is passive, to 
 acquire humility. Humility towards God, 
 humility towards men — these two divisions 
 of humility cannot be separated. 
 
 So, then, you souls called to the great grace 
 of Contemplation, if you wish to profit of it 
 fully, love to be forgotten and accounted as 
 nothing. Speak little of yourselves and hide 
 the exceptional gifts of God. . Be content to 
 let ordinary virtues shine exteriorly, as Our 
 Divine Master expressed it, " So let your 
 light shine before men that they may see your 
 good works and glorify your Father Who is 
 in Heaven.' ' x As for exceptional graces, keep 
 them quite hidden. Imitate Our Lady, who 
 
 iMatth. 5: 16. 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 159 
 
 presented herself in the Temple to be purified 
 and so hid from men's eyes the treasure of her 
 miraculous virginity. This concealed virtue 
 draws down God's love in a wonderful 
 way. 
 
 In the second place, do not obstinately 
 defend your opinions nor excuse yourself in 
 trifles, even when the accusation is not per- 
 fectly accurate. This is the surest way of 
 having that loving look directed upon you 
 which the Father cast upon His Son when He 
 was silent before Herod and Pilate and made 
 no answer to the outrageous insults and 
 calumny. 
 
 Lastly, if you wish to be the object of God's 
 love by reason of your humility, force yourself 
 to regard yourself always and in everything, 
 as the last of all. 
 
 The Pharisee who thought himself better 
 than the rest of mankind and said to himself : 
 " I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, 
 unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican," l 
 only made himself the object of God's hatred 
 and disgust; while the publican, who stood 
 afar off and thought himself unworthy of a 
 place amidst the Jews assembled in the 
 
 *Luke 18: n. 
 
160 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 Temple, drew down a look of pitying kindness 
 which justified him, 1 
 
 Unquestionably, Contemplation always dif- 
 fuses an all Divine attraction in the soul which 
 impels it to take the last place, but this attrac- 
 tion must be cooperated with by considering 
 in all simplicity the good qualities of one's 
 brethren and closing one's eyes to their defects. 
 This practice was dear to all the saints who 
 were raised to the highest Contemplation. 
 
 He who wishes to enjoy favors from God 
 must join obedience to humility. 
 
 O you contemplative souls, if you would 
 win more and more the look of love from God, 
 be prompt, joyful and simple in your obedi- 
 ence in all things. See your Divine Master, 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ: out of obedience 
 He causes Himself to be baptized in the Jordan 
 and a voice is heard from Heaven, saying, 
 " This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well 
 pleased." 2 He holds converse on Mount 
 Thabor with Moses and Elias of all that He 
 must suffer in Jerusalem, being obedient even 
 unto the death of the Cross, and this same 
 heavenly voice is heard again, repeating God's 
 satisfaction. 
 
 1 Lukt 18; 14, * Matth. 3: 17- 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 161 
 
 Obey not only your Superior's voice, but 
 also that of the rule, the certain expression of 
 God's will. Avoid exceptions and singular- 
 ities, the strange illusion into which the devil 
 has made so many contemplative souls fall. 
 Think of Jesus submitting to the full observ- 
 ance of the law in His Circumcision, from 
 which His Divine Conception exempted Him. 
 See Mary complying with the law of puri- 
 fication. Being a Virgin, she was exempt. 
 Then lifting your eyes to Heaven, contemplate 
 the incomparable look of satisfaction which 
 God casts upon the Divine Child and His 
 Mother, and you will understand that the 
 way which is especially pleasing to God's 
 Majesty is not the way of exception, even that 
 to which one has a claim, but of the common 
 life. It is not, however, my intention to con- 
 demn necessary exceptions, since they form 
 a part of community life, but to prevent an 
 illusion which consists in thinking that neces- 
 sary, which really is not so. 
 
 Again, God's love is won by brotherly love. 
 We can only please God by our likeness to 
 Jesus Christ, Our Lord, our elder Brother. 
 Now this likeness is born of charity, for the 
 Divine Master has said: " By this shall all 
 
162 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 men know that you are My disciples, if you 
 have love one for another." l 
 
 So, then, you souls called to Contemplation, 
 make every effort to assist your brethren, 
 whether it be by leaving them the best or 
 by taking upon yourself work and allowing 
 them to rest, or whether it be by lavishing 
 your care upon them in all their needs. Then 
 will God recognize in you the image of His 
 Son Jesus, Who provided bread for the hungry 
 in the desert, and washed the feet of His 
 beloved Disciples at the Last Supper, and 
 this likeness to Jesus will draw down that look 
 of love which brings about rapid advance- 
 ment in supernatural paths. Do not stop 
 until you have succeeded in not harboring 
 the slightest shadow of resentment against 
 those who injure you. On the contrary, love 
 them with a special love and, touched by 
 all their troubles, show yourself ready to 
 suffer everything in order to comfort them 
 in their suffering. Then will God see in 
 you the likeness to His Son Jesus, Who 
 allowed Himself to be kissed by Judas 
 and prayed for His executioners; then will 
 He be pleased with you and make you 
 
 1 John 13: 35. 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 163 
 
 taste of heavenly delights ever more and 
 more. 
 
 In a word, in order to reach the highest 
 point of Contemplation, it is absolutely essen- 
 tial to aim at " doing in all things that which 
 is most pleasing to God." 
 
 Contemplation is essentially a union of love 
 in which the soul gives itself to God, and God 
 to the soul. The more perfect this reciprocal 
 gift, the more elevated the Contemplation. 
 Now, to give oneself to God is to do His Holy 
 Will. The soul finds itself, in the act of Con- 
 templation, wonderfully assisted by the pure 
 love which the Holy Ghost sheds upon it, 
 but this pure love is not enough. The seed 
 scattered upon the earth does not germinate 
 unless the husbandman's hand makes it pene- 
 trate the soil. Having felt the need in a pas- 
 sive manner during prayer of pleasing God, 
 the soul must absolutely become active and 
 force itself to fulfil all the heavenly demands 
 in the details of its daily occupations. 
 
 Let there be no mistake here. The great 
 secret for making rapid progress in Contem- 
 plation is to wound God's heart, who then 
 puts no limits to the wealth of His love and 
 gifts. Now, the arrow which wounds it is the 
 
164 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 burning desire to please Him in all things. 
 When a soul which is called to Contemplation 
 reaches that happy state where, being truly 
 stripped of self and purified from all exterior 
 affection, its life is to the full God's possession 
 and at the entire mercy of His Divine Will, 
 the greatest favors succeed one another in an 
 extraordinary way. 
 
 Such is the way which leads the chosen 
 souls to the summit of Contemplation. It 
 could not be otherwise, since it is this way 
 which Our Lord pointed out when He said: 
 " And He that sent Me is with Me and He 
 hath not left Me alone: for I do always the 
 things that please Him. M l 
 
 Such is the way which, following the Divine 
 Master's example, men like St. Bernard, St. 
 Dominic, St. Francis, St. Ignatius, St. Francis 
 Xavier have followed and which has guided 
 them to the great ecstasies of Contemplation, 
 where the soul is not only lost in God, but 
 also inflamed with such burning love, that of 
 its very fulness there leaps up flames of zeal 
 which convert the world. 
 
 11 Above all," writes St. Teresa, " who 
 could say what numbers of souls the devil has 
 
 1 John 8:29. 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 165 
 
 been robbed of by a St. Dominic, a St. Francis, 
 and other founders of religious Orders, and is 
 now being robbed of by Father Ignatius, 
 founder of the Society of Jesus! But what 
 is the secret of the power exercised by all these 
 apostolic souls? It is that, having received, 
 as their lives testify, this grace of holding 
 converse with the Spouse, they have made 
 noble efforts not to lose, through their own 
 fault, the still more lofty grace of so Divine 
 a union.' ' l 
 
 These efforts of which the Saint speaks are 
 the heroic care of seeking only God's glory 
 and pleasure in all things. 
 
 It must be noticed that the solid virtues 
 of which we have just spoken can only be 
 acquired and preserved by means of a serious 
 examen. Following the example, then, of the 
 Saints who have attained the highest favors 
 from God, souls raised to Contemplation must 
 never cease to make examen. The Holy 
 Ghost in Contemplation doubtless gives great 
 light to see one's faults, but this passive 
 state, of reception of the light, is not enough; 
 to it must be added the active search of a 
 serious examen. 
 
 1 Chdteau interieur, 4* denxeure, ch. 4, t. 3, p. 413. 
 
166 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 St. Ignatius made reflection every hour, and 
 leaving all other occupation, examined his con- 
 science with the greatest care. If anything 
 important prevented him from doing so for a 
 moment, he did so immediately it was fin- 
 ished. 1 He went even further, for he com- 
 pared one examen with the other, and one 
 week with another. 2 
 
 In spite of his numerous ecstasies and the 
 extraordinary light God gave him about his 
 slight faults, St. Francis Xavier used to 
 examine his conscience several times a day. 
 
 St. Teresa left the following advice to her 
 religious: " Every hour and at each of your 
 actions examine your conscience. Then hav- 
 ing seen your faults, try to correct yourself of 
 them with God's help, and you will attain 
 perfection/ ' 3 
 
 1 Bollandists, t. 34, p. 562, n. 475. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 594, n. 911. 
 
 ' Avis d ses religieuses, 27* avis, t. 2, p. 582. 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 167 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE SOUL CALLED TO CONTEMPLATION MUST 
 KEEP ITSELF ENTIRELY FREE FROM ATTACH- 
 MENT TO CREATURES 
 
 The Imitation asks: 
 
 11 Why were certain of the Saints so perfect: 
 
 " So contemplative ? 
 Because they strove to wholly mortify 
 themselves, 
 
 "To all the longings of the world; 
 
 11 And thus with all the marrow of their 
 heart they could cleave to God. 
 
 11 We are too busy with our passions: 
 
 " We are too careful of the things that 
 pass. 
 
 " If we were wholly dead unto ourselves, 
 
 " And no wise entangled in our inner 
 hearts: 
 
 " We then could relish even things Divine. 
 
 11 And have some experience of heavenly 
 Contemplation."* l 
 
 And in another chapter, where he returns 
 to the same subject, the author writes^ 
 
 " He wished to freely fly, 
 
 1 Imitation, Bk. i, ch. II, 
 
168 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 "Who said: 
 
 " Who will give me wings like a dove, 
 
 " And I will fly and be at rest? * 
 
 " What more quiet than the single eye? 
 
 " And what more free, 
 
 1 ' Than he who longs for nothing on earth? 
 
 " So must I pass all creation by, and wholly 
 desert self, 
 
 " And stand in ecstasy of mind and see, 
 
 " That Thou, Creator of all, hast in Thee 
 nothing like Thy creatures. 
 
 " And if one be not set loose from all cre- 
 ation, 
 
 u He cannot freely aim at things Divine. 
 
 " For therefore few souls are found contem- 
 plative, 
 
 11 For there are few that know how 
 
 " Fully to seclude themselves from creatures 
 and beings that will perish.' ' 2 
 
 An incontestable doctrine, for Contempla- 
 tion is a special union of love with God. Now, 
 God never unites Himself so intimately to a 
 soul as when, being dead to the world, it gives 
 itself entirely to Him. When a soul which 
 knows God only by faith, without feeling the 
 delight of His presence, easily turns towards 
 
 1 Ps. 54: 7. 2 Imitation, Bk. 4, ch. 31. 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 169 
 
 creatures, whose charm it experiences, it is 
 foolish, truly, but it is a folly which the weak- 
 ness of human nature, always turning towards 
 a tangible good, in a certain sense explains. 
 But when a soul which has experienced in 
 Contemplation the heavenly pleasure of God's 
 presence, still stoops to creatures to find in 
 them an earthly delight, it is such unseemly 
 behavior that God punishes it by depriving 
 it of this high favor. 
 
 So then, O contemplative souls, shun all 
 attachment to creatures. 
 
 In the first place, cling to solitude and do 
 not spread yourselves outside, either by seek- 
 ing distraction in worldly news or by busying 
 yourselves with what has not been entrusted 
 to you. The essential character of Contem- 
 plation is heavenly peace. Now, how can one 
 enjoy the peace of Heaven when one's atten- 
 tion is necessarily taken up with a thousand 
 earthly matters? 
 
 Do I mean, then, that one must flee from 
 the world and not think of it even when God's 
 glory and one's neighbor's salvation so re- 
 quire? Not at all. But then one should only 
 turn one's attention to it as far as is necessary. 
 The attraction exercised by solitude must 
 
170 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 always remain a weight, drawing the soul and 
 leading it back to God. Such was the con- 
 duct of Saints like St. Bernard, St. Dominic, 
 St. Francis, St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier 
 and all the Saints in general. 
 
 You have a corruptible body, which weighs 
 down the soul and prevents it from flying 
 freely to God's bosom by means of Contem- 
 plation. Avoid what gives this body pleasure, 
 what flatters its sight, hearing, taste and the 
 other senses, or at least only seek in them a 
 rest which is necessary for glorifying God. 
 One must go still further: the Apostle could 
 raise himself to the third Heaven only by 
 bringing his body into subjection. This ex- 
 ample must be followed and the practice of 
 corporal mortification must be constant, 
 though not excessive. If the body is en- 
 feebled, the soul has no strength to raise 
 itself to God in prayer. 
 
 Let us go further ahead. Every one of us 
 is more or less anxious to be held in esteem by 
 others. You absolutely must practise morti- 
 fication in this respect, by offering God the 
 entire sacrifice of your reputation. This holo- 
 caust demands from you the avoidance of all 
 compliments and praise, according to Our 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 171 
 
 Lord's example. If, however, you cannot 
 avoid them, take them, as Our Divine Master 
 did, in referring all the honor to God. 
 
 And further still. Watch over the affec- 
 tions of your heart. Contemplation is a sub- 
 lime exchange of love between God and His 
 Spouse, the soul. Now it is the Bridegroom's 
 privilege to be jealous of the undivided affec- 
 tion and love of His Bride. 
 
 When a soul which has been favored by 
 supernatural favors stoops to natural affec- 
 tions without purifying them in the fire of the 
 love of God, the heavenly Spouse is angered, 
 the source of His graces dries up, and all 
 progress in Contemplation immediately ceases. 
 
 In a word, the contemplative soul must 
 avoid any self-complacency; this return of 
 pride caused Lucifer's ruin. Does this mean 
 that a contemplative soul is never to return 
 upon itself? Not at all. It ought often to 
 consider God's gifts, so as to thank and glorify 
 Him for them. But it is one thing to reflect 
 on oneself with the object of admiring oneself, 
 and quite another thing when the object is to 
 delight in God, and to sing, after the example 
 of the most Holy Virgin: " My soul doth 
 magnify the Lord! " 
 
172 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE SOUL CALLED TO CONTEMPLATION AND 
 WHICH WISHES TO MAKE REAL PROGRESS 
 IN IT, MUST STRIVE AFTER INTIMATE UNION 
 WITH JESUS CHRIST CRUCIFIED 
 
 " When Jesus was transfigured on Thabor," 
 says the Holy Gospel, " His face did shine as 
 the sun; and His garments became white as 
 snow. 1 And behold two men were talking 
 with Him. And they were Moses and Elias, 
 appearing in majesty. And they spoke of 
 His decease that He should accomplish in 
 Jerusalem." 2 
 
 Why did Our Lord thus unite His glorious 
 Transfiguration, a reflex of Heaven, and His 
 ignominious death on the Cross? To teach us 
 that Calvary is the road to eternal happiness. 
 It is Calvary, too, which must be climbed in 
 order to reach Contemplation, the true prelude 
 to the life of Heaven. The soul will never be 
 successful in this, unless it has a quite special 
 devotion to Our Lord's Passion. 
 
 "If you wish, to arrive at contemplative 
 
 1 Matth. 17: 2. 2 Luke 9: 30, 31. 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 173 
 
 rest," says St. Bonaventure, " bring yourself 
 as far as you can to compassionate the Passion 
 of Jesus Christ and to carry Him everywhere 
 in your heart. If, indeed, you cannot com- 
 passionate His suffering, you cannot rejoice 
 with Him. If you meditate well upon His 
 Passion and enter deep into the opening in 
 His side, you will quickly arrive at His Heart. 
 
 happy heart which thus sweetly unites itself 
 to the Heart of Jesus Christ ! . . . O excellent 
 heart, tell me, I beg, of the sweetness which 
 you experience; hide not from me the delight 
 with which you are overwhelmed. But, as 
 
 1 clearly see, you no longer hear what I say, 
 for your heart is absorbed in an indescribable 
 sweetness. . . . You are captivated by the 
 excess of your happiness, you have no power 
 of speech and your senses can no longer act. 
 Whoever wishes to enter into the repose and 
 sweetness of Contemplation by another door, 
 must hold himself a thief and a robber.' ' l 
 
 Let the facts speak for themselves. Among 
 the Saints the greatest contemplative souls 
 have all had a special devotion to Jesus cruci- 
 fied. Among Our Lord's Apostles, two re- 
 ceived the gift of a more sublime Contempla- 
 
 * Stimulus amoris, pars 3, c. 1; t. 12, p. 677. 
 
174 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 tion than the others, St. Paul and St. John. 
 By what door did they enter? St. Paul was 
 raised to the third Heaven. How did he 
 attain this? " For I judged not myself to 
 know any thing among you, but Jesus Christ ; 
 and Him crucified/ ' x There is his answer. 
 
 11 The Apostle St. John," St. Augustine tells 
 us, " is rightly compared to the eagle, for the 
 three other Evangelists walk on the earth with 
 the Humanity of Our Lord, and have said little 
 of His Divinity. But John, as if it cost him 
 an effort to walk on the earth, from the very 
 beginning of his discourse rises above the earth 
 and all the expanse of air and heaven, nay, 
 higher still, above the whole army of Angels 
 and the whole assembly of the invisible powers 
 and reaches Him, by Whom all things were 
 made, saying: In the beginning was the 
 Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
 Word was God." 2 That truly is the highest 
 Contemplation. Now of all the Apostles, John 
 is the only one who, at the foot of the Cross, 
 was united to Jesus crucified by a holy and 
 tender compassion. 
 
 Close to John on Calvary was Mary Mag- 
 dalen, regarded by all the Saints as the perfect 
 
 1 1 Cor. 2: 2. 2 Tract. 36 in Joan. 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 175 
 
 model of a contemplative soul and the Church 
 herself recognizes it in the legend of St. 
 Martha: 
 
 11 In order to enjoy by contemplating the 
 heavenly beatitude, the better part she "had 
 chosen, Magdalen withdrew to a cave in a very 
 high mountain. There she lived thirty years, 
 raised daily to Heaven to hear the Angels' 
 choirs." x 
 
 Now how did Mary Magdalen receive this 
 signal grace? By incomparable union of love 
 with Jesus crucified. Not only did she mount 
 Calvary so as to compassionate the sufferings 
 of her Divine Master, but more, after the holy 
 women had departed from the empty tomb, 
 she remained to weep at the remembrance of 
 the sufferings of His Passion. Jesus, touched 
 by her tears, came to console her by showing 
 her the glory of His Resurrection. 
 
 Let us pass to the Saints who have rendered 
 the Church especially illustrious by the sub- 
 limity of their prayer. St. Bernard was the 
 greatest contemplative of the twelfth century. 
 What gained him admittance into the rest 
 and sweetness of Contemplation? He tells us 
 in his forty-third sermon on the Canticle: " I 
 
 1 Breviary, Lesson 5. 
 
176 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 too, my bi-ethren, from the beginning of my 
 conversion have been careful to gather this 
 little bouquet of myrrh to take the place of 
 all the merits which I am sensible of having 
 missed, and to place it on my heart. I have 
 formed it of all my Saviour's pains and bit- 
 ter griefs. First, of the privations which 
 He suffered during His infancy; afterwards 
 of the labor of His preaching, the weariness 
 of His journeys, the nights spent in prayer, 
 His temptations and sufferings, His tears shed 
 in compassion, the snares laid for Him in con- 
 versation, dangers created by false brethren, 
 outrages, spittings, buffets, mockings, re- 
 proaches, nails and like things, which He 
 suffered for man's salvation, as the Gospel 
 relates in numerous passages. . . . This is 
 why that which I have often on my lips, as 
 you know; that which I have always in my 
 heart, as God knows; always in my writings, 
 as one sees; that which is my sublimest 
 philosophy, is to know Jesus and Jesus cruci- 
 fied." * 
 
 The great ecstatic of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury was St. Francis of Assisi. By what door 
 did he enter into the union of incomparable 
 
 1 Sermo 43 in Cantica, circa med. et in fine^ 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 177 
 
 love which marked the two last years of his 
 life? After a fast of forty days on Mount 
 Al vermis, Francis saw descend from Heaven 
 a winged and crucified Seraph, whose appear- 
 ance, full of grace, produced an excess of joy 
 within him, and whose crucifixion pierced his 
 soul with the sword of suffering. The vision 
 taught this friend of Christ that he must be 
 wholly transformed into the image of Jesus 
 crucified, not by the martyrdom of the flesh 
 but by the consuming fire of the soul. 1 The 
 impression of St. Francis' stigmata sums up 
 his whole life. It teaches us how the love of 
 Jesus crucified was the source of all good to 
 him, and especially during the two heavenly 
 years which preceded his blessed death. 
 
 A century later, St. Catherine of Sienna 
 appeared. From six years of age, she was 
 transported in ecstasy, but the sublime prayer 
 which is the cause of her being looked upon as 
 the great contemplative of the fourteenth 
 century, dates from the ecstasy of Pisa, where 
 for a whole day she was thought to be dead* 
 She was then twenty-seven years old. How 
 did she enter upon this new and lofty road, 
 about which, like St. Paul, she declared herself 
 
 1 See St, Bonaventure's account in the Breviary, 17 September. 
 
178 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 unable to speak? While she was still at Pisa, 
 after being nourished with the Heavenly Food, 
 she saw Our Crucified Lord coming towards 
 her surrounded by a great light. Five rays 
 shone from her Saviour's Wounds and fell 
 upon her hands, her feet and her heart, and 
 the pain which she experienced in consequence 
 was so great that she would have died of it, if 
 God had not supported her. 1 The door of 
 the Contemplation to which she was raised 
 during the last six years of her life was, then, 
 the impression of the stigmata of Jesus cruci- 
 fied. 
 
 Let us conclude with St. Teresa. When 
 she had begun to receive the graces of Con- 
 templation, doubts arose in her mind, as 
 usually happens, and she asked St. Francis 
 Borgia's advice. His reply to her was, that 
 for the future she ought f always to begin prayer 
 by a mystery of the Passion and that if after- 
 wards Our Lord, without any effort on her 
 part, raised her spirit to the supernatural 
 state, she ought to yield herself to His guid- 
 ance without fear. 2 Our Saviour's most holy 
 Passion, then, was for Teresa the blessed 
 
 1 Bollandists, t. 12, pp. 870, 908, 910, 911. 
 
 2 Vie par elle-meme, ch. 24, p. 278. 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 179 
 
 door by which she entered upon the path of 
 Contemplation in a lasting manner. 
 
 In Holy Church, Jesus Christ's true Spouse, 
 there will always be some privileged souls to 
 whom the Holy Ghost grants contemplative 
 graces. But let no mistake be made here. 
 Except in exceptional cases, which come under 
 no law, no one enters upon imperfect Con- 
 templation without having generously an- 
 swered Our Divine Master's call: " If any 
 man will come after Me, let him deny himself, 
 and take up his cross and follow Me." x No 
 one passes from imperfect to perfect Contem- 
 plation without having shared in the agony 
 of Jesus on the Cross. Lastly, no one rises 
 from perfect Contemplation to Consummated 
 Union without bearing the sacred stigmata 
 of Our Lord Jesus Christ imprinted upon his 
 soul and sometimes upon his body. Special 
 devotion to the Holy Passion of Jesus Christ 
 is a signal grace obtained through the most 
 Holy Virgin's blessed intercession, whose 
 sweet soul was pierced by the sword of sorrows 
 on Calvary. Let contemplative souls, then, 
 who desire to respond fully to their holy voca- 
 tion, bring themselves to have always on their 
 
 1 Matth. 16: 24. 
 
180 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 heart and frequently on their lips this all 
 pious strophe of the Stabat Mater: 
 
 Sancta Mater, istud agas, 
 Crucifixi fige plagas, 
 Cordi meo valide ! 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 181 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE SOUL CALLED TO CONTEMPLATION AND 
 WHICH WISHES TO MAKE REAL PROGRESS 
 IN IT, MUST HAVE A SPECIAL DEVOTION TO 
 THE HOLY EUCHARIST 
 
 'I am the living bread, which came down 
 from heaven/ ' says Our Lord: "if any man 
 eat of this bread, he shall live forever. . . . 
 He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My 
 blood, hath everlasting life." l 
 
 The Divine Master teaches us by these 
 words that the Holy Eucharist is the Divine 
 bread which nourishes the soul and gives it 
 strength to reach Heaven. It is the same 
 bread which gives the soul strength to reach 
 the delightful rest of Contemplation, the dawn 
 on earth of eternal happiness. Those who 
 are called to this need a powerful aid in climb- 
 ing the path which leads to it. They will find 
 strength and courage in a very special devotion 
 to the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. 
 
 Facts have here a paramount importance. 
 St. Dominic was a great contemplative soul. 
 
 1 John 6: 51, 55. 
 
182 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 He spent his nights in prayer and was some- 
 times transported in ecstasy. So powerful 
 was his prayer that he could say he had never 
 asked God for anything which he had not 
 obtained. Now, his devotion to the Holy 
 Eucharist was admirable. He often spent 
 the whole night at the foot of the Tabernacle 
 and when sleep forced him to take some rest, 
 he stretched himself on the floor of the 
 sanctuary. 1 
 
 St. Ignatius prepared himself for celebrating 
 the Divine Mysteries with an incomparable 
 attention and he devoted two hours to his 
 thanksgiving. Our Lord rewarded him by 
 granting him at the altar the highest con- 
 templative favors which the soul can attain 
 in this life. " While I was celebrating/' he 
 says in his spiritual notes, " I saw the heavenly 
 country and its Lord, and understood that 
 there were Three distinct Persons and that 
 the Second and the Third are in the Father. 2 
 During the Holy Sacrifice more copious tears 
 than previously came to me, interrupted by 
 sobs and accompanied by such light on the 
 Holy Trinity that there seemed to me nothing 
 
 1 Bollandists, t. 35, p. 596, nri. 218, 219. 
 * Ibid., t. 34, p. 539, n. 626, ad. fin. 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 183 
 
 hidden in the mystery. During this Mass, 
 while I was speaking of the Father, God 
 knows, I knew, I felt, I saw, that He was a 
 Person of the Most Blessed Trinity and I felt 
 myself prompted to love Him more because 
 the other Persons are present in Him in a 
 special way." * 
 
 St. Philip Neri was the great ecstatic of 
 the latter part of the sixteenth century, 
 his devotion to the Holy Mass was admirable. 
 While he was celebrating, his countenance 
 was lit up by a heavenly light and those who 
 were assisting felt themselves touched to the 
 depths of their soul. Sometimes he was trans- 
 ported in ecstasy. 2 
 
 St. Francis Borgia gave eight hours a day 
 to Contemplation; while his devotion to the 
 Holy Eucharist has made him famous. His 
 countenance shone with a seraphic ardor 
 during Holy. Mass, and by a divine instinct 
 he recognized the churches and tabernacles 
 where Jesus Christ Our Lord was really 
 present. 3 
 
 St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, a lay brother of 
 
 1 Bollandists, t. 34, p. 540, n. 629. 
 
 2 Cardinal Capecelatro, Vie de saint Philippe, 1: 2, ch. I. 
 * Breviary y 10 October. 
 
184 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 the Society of Jesus, was raised to the highest 
 Contemplation and he was insatiable in serv- 
 ing Mass. 1 
 
 St. Paschal Bay Ion, a lay brother of the 
 Friars Minor of the strict observance lan- 
 guished habitually with love and was often 
 transported in ecstasy during prayer. In 
 praise of his devotion to the Blessed Eucharist, 
 it is enough to recall the fact that he was 
 declared patron of all Eucharistic Confra- 
 ternities by the Sovereign Pontiff, Leo XIII. 2 
 
 St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi knew the most 
 wonderful mystic ways. So ardent was her 
 desire of receiving Jesus in the Sacrament of 
 love, that no longer being able to restrain it, 
 she used to say to her Daughters: "How 
 many hours are left before Communion? Alas! 
 if we loved Jesus, this time, although so short, 
 would seem like a whole year." 3 
 
 Ten years before her blessed death St. 
 Teresa was raised to the highest of all con- 
 templative graces, the favor of Spiritual 
 Marriage. She had just received Communion 
 from the hand of St. John of the Cross. Here 
 
 1 Breviary, 30 October. 
 
 2 Ibid., 17 May. 
 
 8 Vie de sainte Marie Madeleine de Pazzi, par le P. C£pari, 
 ch. 17. 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 185 
 
 are her words: " It was at the moment when 
 she (the Saint) had just communicated, that 
 Our Lord showed Himself to her. He had 
 that splendor, that beauty, that majesty 
 which shone from Him after the Resurrection. 
 He told her that it was time for her to think 
 no more of what concerned herself, and that 
 He would take care of her. He added other 
 words which her heart can more easily feel 
 than words express.' ' l Then passing to the 
 description of the incomparable union that 
 Our Lord granted her, the Saint adds: " That 
 wh ch God . . communicates to the soul 
 in an instant, is such a great secret, such a 
 high favor and transports the soul with such 
 unutterable pleasure, that I know not with 
 what to compare it. All I can say is that Our 
 Lord at that instant wishes to show it the 
 grandeur of the glory of Heaven in a sublime 
 manner, which no vision or spiritual pleasure 
 in any way resembles. As I conceive it, it 
 is what I call the spirit of the soul becoming 
 one and the same thing with God." 2 
 
 So, then, O contemplative souls, prepare 
 yourselves to receive the Bread of Angels 
 
 1 Chdteau interieur, 7 e demeure, ch. 2; t. 3, pp. 535. 536. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 537. 
 
186 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 with all the devotion of which you are capable; 
 give all the time allowed by the Rule to the 
 Thanksgiving; go and visit Jesus in the Tab- 
 ernacle during your free time. There, pros- 
 trated at His Feet, anticipate the wishes of 
 His Divine Heart by praying for the Church, 
 which He loved so well that He gave His Life 
 for it, and make reparation for the injuries 
 He receives in the Sacrament of love, by pro- 
 found respect jo ned to the outbursts of a 
 tender and compassionate heart. After that, 
 know how to await the hour of the Holy 
 Spirit. He will come sooner or later to visit 
 you and cause you to make wonderful prog- 
 ress in Contemplation. 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 187 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE END WHICH GOD HAS IN VIEW IN RAISING 
 A SOUL TO PERFECT CONTEMPLATION IS NOT 
 ONLY TO LEAD IT TO THE DIVINE UNION, 
 BUT FURTHER TO GIVE IT COURAGE TO 
 WORK AND SUFFER MUCH FOR HIS GLORY 
 
 It is recounted in the Holy Gospel that 
 Peter, contemplating Jesus transfigured on 
 Thabor, said to Him: " Master, it is good for 
 us to be here; let us make three tabernacles, 
 one for Thee, and one for Moses and one for 
 Elias." St. Luke adds: " not knowing what 
 he said." 1 
 
 Peter was wrong in thinking that the de- 
 lights of the Contemplation on Thabor were 
 granted him solely for his enjoyment, since 
 he ought above all to have drawn courage 
 from it to follow his Divine Master generously 
 even to death. Alas! more than one con- 
 templative soul has fallen into a like mistake 
 and it is well to prevent evil. 
 
 Christian perfection admits of three degrees. 
 (In the work on " Ordinary Prayer " Part 2, 
 x Luke 9; 33. 
 
188 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 chapter 13, we gave another and better known 
 division; but the one now given is equally 
 true and better suits the subject treated here). 
 
 1. Working exteriorly for God, while the 
 interior life is enough to maintain purity of 
 intention. This is the least of all. 
 
 2. Remaining outside exterior works in 
 order to apply oneself only to the exercise of 
 the interior life, such as mental prayer, Di- 
 vine Offices and spiritual reading. This de- 
 gree is far superior to the first, since it is 
 more perfect to be united to God Himself than 
 to His creatures, with God in view. 
 
 3. Constantly dwelling in such a close 
 union of love with God, that from its super- 
 abundance there flows an insatiable zeal for 
 working for His glory and good pleasure. 
 This is the most perfect way of imitating Our 
 Lord, Who, while contemplating His Father 
 face to face, said in the infinite excess of His 
 love: " I honor My Father,' ' 1 and: " I seek 
 not My own glory." 2 And again: " That 
 the world may know that I love the Father: 
 And as the Father hath given Me command- 
 ment, so do I. Arise, let us go hence." 3 
 Here He was speaking of His Passion. 
 
 1 John 8: 49. * John 8; 50, 8 John 14; 31, 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 189 
 
 Thanks be to God, this admirable perfection 
 is often found in chosen souls led by the ordi- 
 nary road of meditation ; yet it is particularly 
 the lot of contemplative souls, who can easily 
 draw from the unspeakable delight of their 
 extraordinary prayer the courage necessary 
 for working and suffering much in God's 
 service. The lives of the Saints prove this. 
 
 It was not only that he might enjoy 
 heavenly delight that Moses was raised to 
 the vision of the Divine Essence. He was to 
 draw from it courage to deliver God's people 
 from Egypt. 
 
 It is not only that the Apostles might ex- 
 perience the unspeakable joys of the Holy 
 Ghost that they were enriched with His gifts 
 and fired with His love on the day of Pente- 
 cost. In this delight from on high, they were 
 to find strength to evangelize the world and 
 to die martyrs. 
 
 It is not only that he might enjoy it that 
 St. Paul was raised to the third Heaven, but 
 that he might have strength to correspond 
 w T ith this call of Our Lord: " This man is to 
 Me a vessel of election, to carry My name 
 before the gentiles and kings and the chil- 
 dren of Israel For I will show him how 
 
190 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 great things he must suffer for My name's 
 sake." 1 
 
 It is not only that he might taste indescrib- 
 able sweetness that St. Ignatius was ravished 
 in ecstasy forty times at Manresa, but that 
 he might thus find the courage necessary to 
 bear the imprisonment of Alcala, the per- 
 secutions of Barcelona, Paris and Rome; in 
 a word, that he might endure the great labors 
 connected with the foundation of the Society 
 of Jesus. It is the same in the case of St. 
 Benedict, St. Dominic, St. Francis of Assisi, 
 St. Bernard, St. Francis Xavier and many 
 others. 
 
 To the Saints' example let us add their 
 teaching. St. Thomas fully supports this 
 doctrine. True, he wrote these words: 
 
 11 The growth of merit with regard to eternal 
 reward consists chiefly in charity, a sure sign 
 of which is exterior work supported for Jesus 
 Christ. Yet a much more express mark is 
 found in the one who forgets all that concerns 
 this life and places his happiness in giving him- 
 self up wholly to Contemplation." 2 
 
 But a few pages further on he adds: " The 
 actions of the active life are of two kinds: 
 
 1 Acts 9: 15, 16. 2 2 a 2 ae t q, 182, a. 2, ad. 1. 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 191 
 
 Some arise from the plenitude of Contem- 
 plation, such as teaching and preaching, . . . 
 and they are more perfect^than simple Con- 
 templation. Just as it is more perfect indeed 
 to shed light than to be simply luminous, so 
 it is more excellent to share with others what 
 has been contemplated than to confine one- 
 self to Contemplation. The other actions of 
 the active life consist entirely in exterior occu- 
 pations, such as giving alms, offering hospi- 
 tality and other things of this kind. These 
 are less perfect works than Contemplation/ ' l 
 
 The conclusion which the holy Doctor draws 
 with regard to teaching and preaching applies 
 equally to all work undertaken and to all 
 suffering borne for God's glory. With St. 
 Peter Claver, Contemplation gave rise to such 
 a superabundance of love in his heart that for 
 forty years he joyfully became the slave of the 
 negroes of Carthagena. It was evidently 
 more perfect than the ecstasies where the 
 soul simply burns with Divine love, as a fire 
 which causes a conflagration is more fierce 
 than a furnace which burns out without 
 throwing out any flames. 
 
 As to St. John of the Cross, he describes 
 
 1 2° 2 ae , q. 1 88, a. 6 in corp. 
 
192 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 from his own personal experience the sub- 
 limes t favors of the mystic union. The proof 
 that these incomparable graces were not 
 granted him only to unite him with God, is 
 found in his heroic life. His apostolic works 
 in behalf of the poor of Durvello, the prison 
 of Toledo, the ecstasy of Segovia, where John 
 answered Our Divine Master Who offered 
 him the choice of a reward: " Lord, to suffer 
 and be despised for Thee; " * there we have a 
 voice which cries aloud: The sublime favors 
 which I describe have been granted me that 
 I might thence draw the courage to suffer 
 and work much for God's glory. 
 
 St. Teresa, then, after having spoken of 
 the highest favors of Contemplation, had 
 abundant reason for saying: " By means of 
 the effects of these great graces, if you have 
 been careful, doubtless you have already per- 
 ceived the end for which Our Lord grants 
 them to certain souls in this world. Yet I 
 think it is useful to speak of it here. It must 
 not be imagined that Our Lord's aim is only 
 to give them consolation and delight. That 
 would be a great mistake, for the most marked 
 
 1 Vie de saint Jean de la Croix, par le Pere J£rdme de Saint 
 Joseph, ch. 8, 10, 16. 
 
THE VIRTUES AND DEVOTIONS 193 
 
 favor that God can grant us in this world is 
 to make our life like to that which His Son 
 led when on earth. Thus I hold it certain 
 that in granting these graces Our Lord, as I 
 have sometimes said in this work, aims at 
 strengthening our weakness, so as to enable 
 us to endure great suffering, as He did. And, 
 indeed, we see that it has always been those 
 who were most like Our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who have suffered most. Think what His 
 glorious Mother and His Apostles had to 
 suffer. And a Saint Paul, whence did he 
 draw the strength to endure such excessive 
 labors? . . . Who can say how far a soul, in 
 which Our Lord dwells in such a special 
 manner, forgets its own rest! How little 
 honors touch it! How far it is from wishing 
 to be thought well of in the smallest thing! 
 
 " Being always in the company of its divine 
 Spouse, as is right, how could it be mindful 
 of itself? Its only thought is to please Him 
 and to find means of proving to Him its love. 
 This, my Daughters, is the end of prayer; and 
 in God's designs, this Spiritual Marriage is 
 only destined to produce incessant works for 
 His Glory." * 
 
 1 Chdteau interieur, 7® demeure, ch. 4; t. 3, pp. 555, 556, 
 
194 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 All contemplative souls, then, must gird 
 their loins and prepare themselves for hard 
 work. The law is general — the method of 
 complying with it alone differs. Without 
 doubt, the labors of a St. Simon Stylites were 
 not the same as those of a St. Francis Xavier; 
 but both found in the fulness of their Con- 
 templation the strength to work and suffer 
 in a wonderful way for God's glory. 
 
PART IV 
 Supernatural "Visions anb Speecfj 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 SUPERNATURAL VISIONS AND SPEECH: THEIR 
 NATURE AND DIFFERENT CLASSES 
 
 We have seen that Contemplation essen- 
 tially arises from charity and increases charity. 
 It presupposes, therefore, the state of grace 
 and sanctifies the soul. 
 
 It is not necessarily so with Visions and 
 Speech : these are sometimes granted to sin- 
 ners for their conversion. St. Paul was per- 
 secuting the first Christians when he heard 
 these words: " I am Jesus Whom thou per- 
 secutest. It is hard for thee to kick against 
 the goad." l 
 
 Sometimes even these words do not bring 
 about conversion : Caiphas prophesied and the 
 gift of prophecy did not change him in the 
 least. It was revealed to St Margaret of 
 Cortona, while leading a sinful life, that she 
 would one day arrive at a high state of sanc- 
 tity and yet she still continued in disfavor 
 with God for a considerable time. 
 
 Supernatural Visions and Speech are di- 
 
 1 Acts 9: 15. 
 
 197 
 
198 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 vided into three classes: Corporeal Visions 
 and Speech, where one sees and hears by 
 means of the exterior senses, and which come 
 either from the good or bad Angel, since God 
 does not usually effect them Himself directly. 
 
 Visions and Speech of the imagination, 
 where one sees and hears by means of the 
 interior senses. God does not usually effect 
 these, either, without a medium, and so they 
 too come from the good or the bad Angel. 
 
 In practice, it is well to note that in the 
 natural order one sees and hears more clearly 
 by means of the exterior than by the interior 
 senses. In the supernatural order, on the 
 contrary, the interior Visions and Speech are 
 much clearer and more vivid than the exterior. 
 This is due to the good or the bad Angel's 
 wonderful power over the imagination. 
 
 Words of the imagination almost always 
 seem to be uttered in the depths of the soul. 
 Sometimes, however, they seem to come from 
 Heaven, or from close by. 
 
 Lastly, there are intellectual Visions and 
 Speech, where one sees and hears after the 
 manner of the Angels, without any help from 
 the imagination. In this case, articulate 
 words or a sensible sign will be looked for in 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 199 
 
 vain. God alone can be their author, Whose 
 Almighty power is needed to make a soul, 
 imprisoned in a mortal body, hear and see 
 after the manner of the Angels. 
 
 Speech is more usual than Visions, the 
 reason being that these supernatural graces 
 are ordered by God for the spiritual good of 
 the soul which receives them. Now, this good 
 depends more on the hearing than on the 
 sight. ' Faith, then, cometh by hearing/ ' 
 says the Apostle. 1 
 
 Finally, in supernatural Speech words of 
 the imagination are much more usual than 
 corporeal or intellectual words. They are 
 more frequent than corporeal words because, 
 since God's aim is the soul's sanctification, 
 He employs by preference the imagination, 
 which has more effect upon the intelligence 
 than the corporal senses. It is more frequent 
 than intellectual Speech, since this latter is 
 much more miraculous. Now, God rarely 
 works great miracles. 
 
 1 Rom. 10: 17. 
 
200 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE PRECAUTIONS TO BE TAKEN BEFORE 
 PLACING FAITH IN SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 
 AND SPEECH 
 
 Corporeal and imaginary Visions and 
 Speech come either from the good Angel or 
 from the devil. In these uncertain favors, 
 then, one runs the risk of taking, as coming 
 from the good Angel, what may really come 
 from the bad. God alone, on the contrary, 
 can be the cause of intellectual Visions and 
 Speech. Yet even then all danger of illusion 
 has not disappeared, for there are souls which 
 take a simple but unusual attraction of grace 
 for intellectual Speech. So whatever the 
 nature of the Visions and Speech, vigilance 
 and prudence are called for. 
 
 The first thing to be done is to examine 
 whether the Visions and Speech have the 
 characteristics of the good Spirit. These 
 characteristics are seven in number. 
 
 First Characteristic. Humility 
 
 The good Spirit urges one not to take pride 
 in the grace received and to keep it as secret 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 201 
 
 as possible. After God's apparition to Moses 
 in the burning bush, he exclaims: " Who am 
 I that I should go to Pharao? " 1 When 
 Isaias had heard the songs of the Seraphim, 
 he declared that his lips were unclean. After 
 the miraculous draught of fishes, St. Peter 
 exclaims: "Depart from me, for I am a 
 sinful man, O Lord.^ 2 And finally the Most 
 Blessed Virgin, when visited by the Angel 
 Gabriel, who announces to her the greatest 
 of mysteries, answers: Behold the . hand- 
 maid of the Lord." 3 
 
 On the contrary, in similar cases the devil 
 incites to the self-complacency which ruined 
 the rebel angels, and to the display of these 
 extraordinary favors. 
 
 Second Characteristic. Obedience 
 
 The good Spirit incites to obedience in 
 execution and judgment. As soon as the 
 Superior points out a fault needing correction, 
 the work of eradicating it begins ; as soon as 
 he forbids a corporal mortification, it is 
 dropped; when the Confessor gives a counsel, 
 it is immediately adopted. The devil, on 
 the contrary, stirs up obstinacy in ideas, the 
 
 1 Ex. 3: 11. 2 Luke 5: 8. 5 Luke i: 35. 
 
202 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 doing of mortifications without permission 
 and even in opposition to the Confessor's 
 advice. 
 
 Third Characteristic. The Observance of 
 Rules and Community Life 
 
 The good Spirit urges the scrupulous ob- 
 servance of the smallest rules, and the making 
 of no exceptions to the community life, 
 except in cases of necessity. The devil, on 
 the other hand, urges that the rules and com- 
 munity life should be lightly regarded, under 
 the specious pretext that one is being guided 
 by a higher light. For instance, one will want 
 to pray during the night but will ask to rise 
 after the Community in the morning. Little 
 food is taken, but a special diet is required, 
 and so on. 
 
 Fourth Characteristic. Peace of Soul 
 
 The good Spirit produces a profound, de- 
 lightful and heavenly peace in the soul, which 
 is a preparation for union with God, in accord- 
 ance with what is written: " And His (God's) 
 place is in peace." 1 The devil, on the con- 
 trary, brings about trouble, since this state 
 
 x Ps. 75: 3. 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 203 
 
 of soul is favorable to sin, or at least prevents 
 progress in virtue. 
 
 It must not be thought, however, that the 
 good Spirit always begins by bringing about 
 peace, for in ■ many Visions He begins by 
 putting a certain fear in the soul, which soon 
 disappears and melts into a delightful peace. 
 Divine Wisdom has thus ordained because 
 fear gives rise to reverence for God — a very 
 necessary quality when there is a question of 
 receiving an exceptional communication from 
 God. When the Angel of the Lord appears 
 to Zachary, fear takes possession of him, but 
 the Angel reassures him by saying: " Fear 
 not, Zachary.' ' x In the same way, when Our 
 Lord appears to the Apostles in the Cenacle, 
 they are troubled and afraid, but Jesus calms 
 them by saying: " Peace be to you; it is I, 
 fear not." 2 
 
 Our Lord Himself wished to point out to 
 St. Catherine of Sienna this sign which helps 
 to distinguish between the good and evil 
 spirit. " If you ask Me how it is possible 
 to recognize what comes from the devil and 
 what comes from Me, I answer you that it is 
 by this sign: if it is the devil presenting him- 
 
 1 Luke i: 13. 2 Luke 24: 36. 
 
204 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 self to the soul under the guise of light, the 
 soul is overjoyed at it; but the longer the 
 vision lasts, the more the joy diminishes, and 
 soon only trouble, sadness and darkness, ob- 
 scuring all the interior, are left. But if it is 
 I, the Eternal Truth, visiting the soul, it 
 experiences a holy fear at the first moment 
 and together with this fear, joy, assurance 
 and a sweet prudence, which is the cause that 
 while doubting, it does not doubt." l 
 
 Fifth Characteristic. Purity of Action and 
 Intention 
 
 True Visions always bear the stamp of 
 perfect purity, while false Visions incite to 
 more or less misplaced liberties. Let no one 
 raise as objection certain marks of excessive 
 love given by Our Lord to St. Catherine of 
 Sienna, St. Rose of Lima, Blessed Angela of 
 Foligno, Blessed Margaret Mary and other 
 privileged souls. From this holy familiarity 
 there always comes something infinitely pure 
 and akin to the incomprehensible love of the 
 Son of God, which makes Him descend from 
 Heaven upon the Altar and from the Altar 
 into our heart, to there unite Himself with us. 
 
 1 Dialogue 71 , Poussielgue, 1885, t. 1, p. 179. 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 205 
 
 As to the affections in true Visions, the soul 
 feels loved with the purest love. Visions of 
 which the devil is the agent, on the contrary, 
 bear the stamp of a troubled love which is 
 not entirely chaste. " In vain," says St. 
 Teresa, " will he (the devil) begin by making 
 you enjoy a certain amount of pleasure. The 
 soul rejects it with an indescribable horror. 
 It finds the pleasure perfectly different from 
 that which is experienced in a true Vision. 
 Besides, the soul sees that the love shown 
 does not bear the characteristics of a chaste 
 and pure love, so that in a very short time it 
 discovers and recognizes the enemy/ ' l 
 
 Sixth Characteristic. Dignity of Deportment 
 and Address 
 
 True Visions are always full of dignity and 
 reserve. The words uttered are never empty, 
 but always to God's glory and the salvation 
 of souls. The devil, on the contrary, even 
 when he attempts to take upon himself a vir- 
 tuous exterior, always displays a something 
 more or less out of keeping in his attitude and 
 lingers over vain and useless words. If there 
 is anything grotesque about the Vision, it 
 
 1 Vie par elle-meme, ch. 28 ; t. 1 , p. 343. 
 
206 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 is a sure sign that it proceeds from the devil, 
 or an overwrought brain. 
 
 Seventh Characteristic. Joy in Suffering 
 
 True Visions inspire disgust for what nature 
 loves and cause joy to be found in sickness, 
 humiliation and ingratitude; in a word, in 
 suffering. Visions of which the devil is the 
 agent always savor more or less of the earth 
 and are the cause of joy being sought in com- 
 fort, praise and honor. 
 
 Our Lord said to Blessed Angela of Foligno : 
 11 You will know that I am within you when 
 you will not only be content to patiently 
 suffer the evil which will be inflicted upon you 
 and said about you, but when you will regard 
 it on the contrary as a great benefit. This 
 sign will fully assure you of God's grace." x 
 
 When a Vision has not all these character- 
 istics of the good Spirit, it must be immedi- 
 ately rejected, as it comes from the devil or 
 a deranged imagination, On the other hand, 
 is a Vision or Speech which possesses all the 
 characteristics of the good Spirit to be immedi- ' 
 ately accepted? Logically it would seem so, 
 
 1 Vie ecrite par le Frere Arnauld, ch. 5. Bollandists, t. i, p- 
 200, n. 89. 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 207 
 
 and yet prudence gives a negative reply. 
 Illusion is so easy in such matters that before 
 giving a decided answer, the stamp of time 
 must be awaited. A certain resistance to 
 these supernatural manifestations must even 
 be exacted from those who receive them. 
 Such is the teaching common to the Saints. 
 
 St. Ignatius of Loyola used to say: " Visions 
 and revelations, which often deceive and dis- 
 turb the faint and feeble-hearted . . . should 
 never be desired or asked for. Nay more, 
 according to the counsel of the Saints and 
 Masters of the spiritual life, one must always, 
 as far as lies within one's power, shun them 
 and be suspicious of them." l 
 
 St. John of the Cross thus expresses his 
 opinion: " In the case of pious persons, the 
 senses are sometimes struck by objects which 
 are supernaturally presented to them. For 
 instance, the eyes perceive the forms and 
 persons of the other life, such and such a 
 Saint, good or bad angels, marvellous light 
 and splendor. The hearing perceives mys- 
 terious words, sometimes uttered by these 
 apparitions, sometimes the source of which 
 cannot be located. The smell is affected by 
 
 1 Bollandists, Vie de saint Ignace, t. 34, p. 537, n. 614. 
 
208 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 exquisite scents, whose source is unknown. 
 In the same way these persons experience 
 extraordinary sweetness in their taste, and 
 their touch too feels a kind of pleasantness, 
 such that it seems to them they are plunged 
 in enjoyment to the marrow of their bones 
 and that they are swimming in a torrent of 
 delight. . . . Now it is important to know 
 that although the extraordinary effects which 
 may take place in the corporal senses are the 
 work of God, one must never be self-com- 
 placent about them nor trust in them with 
 certainty. Nay more, one must absolutely 
 shun them, without examining whether they 
 arise from a good or bad princip e. The more 
 exterior and corporal they are, the less certain 
 is it that God is their Author, for it is charac- 
 teristic of His Being to communicate Itself to 
 the spirit. There is more security and more 
 real profit for the soul in interior graces than 
 in sensible consolations, from which frequent 
 errors can arise." l 
 
 St. Philip Neri recommended his followers 
 to reject all these things (Visions and revela- 
 tions) as far as they could, without fear of 
 displeasing God. This resistance, he added, 
 
 1 Montie du Carmel, i: 2, ch. n., t. 2, pp. 167, 168. 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 209 
 
 is one of the surest means one has of dis- 
 tinguishing between true and false visions. 1 
 
 St. Alphonsus de Liguori says: " Every 
 effort must be made to banish visions, speech 
 and revelations. . . . Let the Confessor, then, 
 order that they be unceasingly rejected, but 
 always with humility and without any sign 
 of disdain." 2 
 
 Let it not be said that when a Vision bears 
 all the characteristics of the Spirit of God, it 
 is insulting God and depriving oneself of great 
 graces to reject it. This argument has no 
 value. Why? 
 
 In the first place, Visions do not fail to 
 offer a certain danger to one's salvation. God 
 usually allows that, if there are true ones, 
 there should also be false ones. Man's life 
 on earth is a warfare where God and the devil 
 struggle for souls. If God makes use of 
 Visions and Speech to attract them, is it not 
 meet that He should allow the devil to attract 
 them in the same way, and consequently, 
 may one not predict that a soul which has 
 true Visions will also have false ones? Now, 
 
 1 Vie de saint Philippe de Neri, ch. 26. Bollandists, t. 19, 
 P- 587, n. 375. 
 
 2 Homo apostolicus, App. 1, n. 23, 
 
210 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 God is pleased to have us reject even the best 
 things for the sole reason that they might be 
 a danger to the salvation of our soul. To act 
 thus is to act with prudence, and as Our Lady- 
 did, when on hearing the Angel's salutation, 
 she was troubled and asked herself what this 
 salutation might mean. 
 
 In the second place, Visions bring honor. 
 God makes use of them to clothe His servants 
 with the reputation of sanctity, and the 
 Church makes frequent mention of them in 
 her Offices, to the glory of the Saints. Now, 
 God is pleased to have us reject even the best 
 things on the sole ground that they bring 
 honor. Thus the Spirit of God urges men to 
 flee from the Episcopacy, from being made 
 Superiors, from important pulpits. Yet all 
 these are very good things in themselves. 
 
 In the third place, Visions are very pleasant, 
 while the life of pure faith is rough. Now 
 God is pleased to have us prefer the bitter to 
 the sweet for His love and following the 
 example of Jesus Christ Our Lord. 
 
 Lastly, the Visions and revelations which 
 have been most renowned in the Church, 
 like those of St. Catherine of Sienna, of St. 
 Teresa, of Blessed Margaret Mary, have 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 211 
 
 always been subjected to the test of contra- 
 diction. Hence it becomes clear that a reve- 
 lation must always be suspected when it has 
 not triumphed over numerous obstacles. 
 
 However, here, as in all things, prudence 
 must be reasonable. If the Visions always 
 continue, in spite of the resistance offered, 
 and have the characteristics of the good Spirit, 
 to persist in rejecting them would not be 
 prudent zeal. They must be accepted with 
 gratitude, humility and detachment. 
 
 With gratitude, since if^God requires grati- 
 tude for ordinary graces, which He refuses to 
 none, for a much stronger reason does He 
 expect it for the extraordinary favors which 
 He grants only to a few. 
 
 Gratitude is not enough, for while singing 
 a hymn of thanksgiving to God, it is possible 
 to add to it a hymn to one's own glory, like 
 the Pharisee who said: " O God, I give Thee 
 thanks that I am not as the rest of men." * 
 Humility, then, must be added, which con- 
 sists in holding oneself unworthy of such 
 favors and consequently in not complaining 
 when God withdraws them; in not preferring 
 oneself to those to whom God does not grant 
 
 1 Luke 18: ii. 
 
212 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 like favors, and in not talking of them except 
 in case of necessity, that is, in order to be 
 directed. A very rare humility, for St. Philip 
 Neri says: "It is difficult not to be puffed 
 up with vanity in Divine Visions; more diffi- 
 cult to hold oneself little worthy of them; 
 very difficult to believe oneself quite un- 
 worthy and not to prefer their sweetness to 
 patience, humility and obedience." 1 
 
 Again, gratitude and humility are not 
 enough, since one may, even with these two 
 virtues, become too attached to these Visions, 
 which are only God's gift, and it is to God 
 that one must be attached. It is imperative, 
 then, to be detached from them, that is, not 
 to recall their remembrance unless for grave 
 reasons, such as to excite oneself to confidence 
 during a period of discouragement ; and in the 
 next place, to esteem them less than solid 
 virtues and sufferings borne from pure love 
 of Jesus Christ. 
 
 This is the common teaching of the Saints. 
 St. Ignatius of Loyola said: " When one has 
 cut short all curiosity, esteem and desire for 
 Visions and revelations . . . and God grati- 
 fies one by sending them, they must be 
 
 1 Bollandists, t. 19, p. 587, n. 374. 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 213 
 
 accepted with fear, humility, thanksgiving 
 and prudence." l 
 
 St. John of the Cross says: "If we have 
 insisted so much on the necessity of rejecting 
 Visions and revelations; if we have laid stress 
 upon recommending Confessors not to en- 
 courage souls to this kind of communication, 
 it is not because spiritual Directors are always 
 obliged to hold them in dislike and disdain to 
 such an extent as to give occasion to persons 
 to be too reserved about them and to deprive 
 them of the courage to manifest them. By 
 thus closing the door upon their free manifes- 
 tation, Directors expose these persons to a 
 host of dangers. Besides, these graces are a 
 means. Now, since it is a means and a way 
 by which God conducts these souls, it is not 
 fitting to disdain them and there is no reason 
 to be afraid, still less to be scandalized. But 
 one must proceed very gently, kindly and 
 calmly, and encourage the souls by giving 
 them the chance of clear explanation. If 
 need be, one may even enjoin explanation 
 upon them. Indeed, souls sometimes experi- 
 ence such great difficulty in making these 
 declarations that nothing must be neglected 
 
 1 BoUandists, Vie de saint Ignace, t. 34, p, 537, n f 6l4r 
 
214 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 to bring them to make them. Afterwards 
 they must be directed in the sure road of 
 faith, taught to turn their eyes from all these 
 supernatural gifts and encouraged to detach 
 their mind and heart from them, so as to have 
 free scope in reaching the heights of perfec- 
 tion. They must, in fine, be convinced that 
 a single action or act of the will performed 
 through love has more value before God than 
 all heavenly Visions and revelations, and that 
 many souls who are not enriched with like 
 favors are, beyond a doubt, infinitely further 
 advanced than others who have received a 
 profusion of them." l 
 
 St. Alphonsus de Liguori is of the same 
 opinion. A Carmelite prioress wrote to him, 
 saying: " I am the victim of numberless fears 
 and hesitations, and, according to many Di- 
 rectors, I am the dupe of deceptive illusions/' 
 The Saint answered her: " The Directors who 
 have spoken thus to you have done so for 
 a good purpose and they have followed the 
 general rule that souls favored by God must 
 be humiliated and kept under to defend them 
 from pride. But this rule does not apply to 
 your soul. You do not pose as an ecstatic 
 
 1 Montee du Carmel, i: 2, ch. 22; t. 2, pp. 299, 300. 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 215 
 
 or a prophetess; you do not go hither and 
 thither opening your secret self to those about 
 you, as other people do, who thus cause strong 
 suspicion that they are both deceived and 
 deceivers. You speak of this, as I believ6, 
 solely when it is necessary to do so and to ask 
 help and advice. On the other hand, Our 
 Lord gives you light enough to show you what 
 you are and what you deserve in return for 
 your faults and miseries. Why fear, then, that 
 the devil is deceiving you? The devil? It is 
 God, God who inspires you and ceaselessly 
 urges you, for He wishes you to be wholly His. ' ' x 
 Let us conclude by a remarkable instance 
 which fully confirms all this doctrine. In 
 1582 a young Neapolitan girl named Ursula 
 Benincasa, who later on became the foundress 
 of the Theatines, and whose virtues were 
 declared heroic by Pius VI, heard Our Lord 
 tell her to go to the Pope, Gregory XIII, and 
 warn him to be more vigorous in reforming 
 discipline and morals. The Sovereign Pon- 
 tiff did not reject the advice, but wishing to 
 proceed with prudence, he appointed a com- 
 mission to examine Ursula's spirit. This 
 commission, composed of cardinals and men 
 
 1 Lettre 143, Desclee, 1888, t. 1, p. 251. 
 
216 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 of the greatest worth, such as Father Claude 
 Aquaviva, General of the Society of Jesus, 
 referred the matter to the judgment of St. 
 Philip Neri, the oracle of Rome. At the very 
 first meeting, he summoned the maiden who 
 had had the Ecstasy, and in order to try her, 
 addressed her before the whole assembly as 
 a " proud, ignorant, lying, hypocritical woman 
 possessed by the devil." Ursula answered 
 that she deserved every reproach and that 
 her only desire was to be cured if she was the 
 devil's dupe. As St. Philip was not con- 
 vinced by the great humility with which 
 Ursula received this test, he continued to 
 mortify her for seven months, even going so 
 far as to deprive her of Mass and Communion 
 and to threaten her with the Inquisition. At 
 length the maiden's humility, obedience and 
 gentleness conquered all doubts and Gregory 
 XIII, convinced that the warning came from 
 heaven, appointed a new commission com- 
 posed of four cardinals, among whom was St. 
 Charles Borromeo and Blessed Paul of Arezzo. 
 The great and salutary fruits which resulted 
 for the Church clearly proved that the finger 
 of God was there. 1 
 
 1 St. Philip Neri, by Cardinal Capecelatro, Bk. 3, ch. 4. 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 217 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 FIVE WAYS IN WHICH GOD SPEAKS SUPERNAT- 
 URALLY TO SOULS AND HOW THEY SHOULD 
 RECEIVE THESE EXTRAORDINARY FAVORS 
 
 First way. The words, either corporeal, 
 imaginary or intellectual, instantly accom- 
 plish what they mean. For instance, a soul 
 still attached to the vanities of earth hears 
 these words: " Henceforth I wish you to be 
 attached only to Me." Immediately it loses 
 all attraction for creatures. Or again, a soul 
 which is overwhelmed by an agony of fear 
 which seems as though it must last for ever, 
 hears these simple words: " It is I, fear not." 
 It instantly finds itself filled with a cloudless 
 peace and heroic courage, without knowing 
 how. These words, which in an instant 
 change a soul's state, are evidently always 
 very precious, but sometimes they are of 
 incomparable power. In a moment they 
 raise a soul to high sanctity, as was the case 
 with Abraham, according to St. John of the 
 Cross. God said to him: " Walk before Me, 
 and be perfect." l These words at once pro- 
 
 1 Gen. 17: 1. 
 
218 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 duced the most eminent sanctity in the great 
 Patriarch. 
 
 A similar prodigy is found in the life of 
 St. Teresa. One day she heard these words: 
 11 I wish you to hold no more converse with 
 men but only with the Angels. May God be 
 everlastingly blessed," she adds, " for having 
 given me in a moment the liberty which I 
 could not have gained in many years, although 
 I had often done myself such violence that 
 my health had greatly suffered from it. As 
 this was the work of the All-Powerful and true 
 Master of all creatures, I experienced no 
 pain." 1 
 
 In these cases, illusion is impossible. Only 
 the hand of the All-Powerful can effect such 
 a change in an instant. All the soul has to 
 do is to receive this signal grace with humility 
 and gratitude. 
 
 As a rule, the words which transform a soul 
 are few, but they enter so deeply into the 
 memory that they never leave it. They are 
 most often imaginary and the soul hears them 
 in its very depths. 
 
 Second way. Words spoken to the soul for 
 its instruction, referring either to the mysteries 
 
 1 Vie par elle-metne, ch. 24; t. 1, pp. 282, 283. 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 219 
 
 of faith or to the meaning of a passage of 
 Scripture, or to the excellence or practice 
 of a particular virtue. 
 
 Sometimes it is neither God nor the good 
 Angel who utters those words, but the soul 
 which says them to itself, as we are in the 
 habit of doing when holding an interior dis- 
 cussion with ourselves. The soul is right, 
 however, in attributing them to God in a 
 certain sense, since it pronounces them under 
 the influence of a special supernatural light 
 and with the particular help of the Holy- 
 Ghost. This help does not, however, amount 
 to infallibility, but allows of possible errors. 
 Besides this, the devil may also play his part. 
 Such words, then, must not be unreservedly 
 accepted nor without the control of learned 
 and competent men. They are of much less 
 value than the preceding, for they do not 
 create virtue in the soul but only give an 
 impetus towards its acquisition. 
 
 Third way. Words expressing a clear and 
 distinct command. St. Aloysius of Gonzaga 
 heard a voice directing him to join the Society 
 of Jesus. St. Teresa received the command 
 to work for the reform of the Carmelites; 
 Blessed Margaret Mary to spread devotion 
 
220 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 to the Sacred Heart. Here again illusion is 
 easy and in order to prevent oneself from 
 falling into it, these words must be submitted 
 to the rigid censure of the reason and to the 
 judgment of prudent and learned men. 
 
 Fourth way. Our Lord asks a soul to show 
 Him its desires. It is His love which makes 
 Him speak and He cherishes this soul and 
 cannot refuse it anything. As a rule, these 
 w 7 ords are only heard by souls who have 
 reached great sanctity and who have rendered 
 their Divine Master conspicuous service. St. 
 Thomas heard Our Lord say to him while he 
 was praying at the foot of his crucifix: " You 
 have written well of Me, Thomas; what 
 reward do you wish? " In the same way St. 
 John of the Cross was questioned by Our 
 Lord as to the reward he wished for in return 
 for so many labors undertaken for God's 
 glory. 
 
 As a rule, the Holy Ghost suggests the 
 answer. St. Thomas replied: " Lord, I only 
 ask for Thee as my reward; " St. John of the 
 Cross: " Lord, to suffer and to be despised 
 for Thee; " Blessed Margaret Mary: " Lord, 
 that which will procure Thee more glory.' ' 
 
 If, as is the exception, a soul does not feel 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 221 
 
 drawn by any wish, it would be well to say 
 simply: " Lord, what is most in conformity 
 with Thy glory and Thy good pleasure." 
 
 Fifth way. God manifests the hidden pres- 
 ent or future. When it is a question of the 
 present, the manifestation is called revelation; 
 of the future, prophecy. Let us speak first 
 of revelations. They are of different kinds: 
 knowledge of what is taking place at a dis- 
 tance ; an insight into the conscience of others ; 
 knowledge of the state in which souls find 
 themselves after death, in Hell, Heaven or 
 Purgatory. St. Pius V is present in spirit 
 at the Battle of Lepanto; St. Teresa sees 
 Blessed Azevedo and his thirty-nine Com- 
 panions in martyrdom going up to Heaven. 
 St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi openly reads the 
 souls of her novices; St. Teresa and Blessed 
 Margaret Mary see people whom they knew 
 on earth, in Purgatory. 
 
 It is useless to prove how the knowledge of 
 the hidden present may include illusion, and 
 consequently it is needless to recommend to 
 the Director the greatest prudence. Yet this 
 prudence must not result in a foregone con- 
 clusion never to accept or approve, no matter 
 what may be the signs of credibility. It is 
 
222 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 certain that there are true revelations, sent 
 by God to be made public. For instance, the 
 revelations made to Blessed Margaret Mary- 
 relative to the Souls in Purgatory had as 
 their end either the consolation of a family 
 or the obtaining of prayers. 
 
 In practice, therefore, the Confessor must 
 first show himself very prudent and reserved 
 in approving the truth of the matter, still 
 more so in allowing it to be communicated to 
 others. If he thinks finally that he should 
 grant this permission, let him not, as a general 
 rule, take it upon himself to make the com- 
 munication, but let the one who has received 
 the revelation do this. 
 
 Let us pass to prophecies. They can lend 
 themselves to many an error, which in general 
 is the result of one of the three following 
 causes : 
 
 First, there are some spirits so unevenly 
 balanced and souls so foolishly vain that they 
 will not hesitate to make more or less appar- 
 ently tempting prophecies, in order to attract 
 attention. Every one knows how many such 
 predictions, which never come true, give the 
 impious the opportunity of deriding the holiest 
 things. 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 223 
 
 In the second place, the prophecies may 
 come from the devil. If, unhappily, they 
 come true, the devil by means of his natural 
 wisdom having guessed right, the Director 
 and the disciple, who have been imprudent 
 enough to conclude from this fact that the 
 prophecies came from the good Spirit, find 
 themselves in a very dangerous position. 
 
 Lastly, even in the prophecies whose Author 
 is God, there is room for error, since they may 
 be wrongly interpreted. The prophecies of 
 Holy Writ are Divine. Yet the Church must 
 explain them. How, then, can one dare to 
 affirm that prophecies made to individuals 
 do not need explanation? Both as regards the 
 prophecies of Holy Writ and the prophecies 
 true in themselves which have been made to 
 individuals, the false interpretations at all 
 times have been numerous. 
 
 David says, when speaking of Jesus Christ 
 Our Lord: " He shall rule from sea to sea and 
 from the river unto the ends of the earth." x 
 The Jews, even the disciples of Our Divine 
 Master, interpreted this passage as signifying 
 an earthly kingdom, and were greatly mis- 
 taken. 
 
 iPs. 71: 8. 
 
224 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 Jonas went through Ninive repeating: "Yet 
 forty days, and Ninive shall be destroyed." l 
 The forty days went by and Ninive was not 
 destroyed. The prophecy was only condi- 
 tional: Ninive shall be destroyed unless it 
 does penance. The prophet Jonas had taken 
 a simply conditional prediction for absolute. 
 He was mistaken. 
 
 Blessed Joan of Arc is in prison. St. 
 Catherine appears to her and announces help. 
 Joan thinks she means her deliverance and 
 that she will leave the prison in which she 
 is shut up. It was indeed a question of 
 deliverance, but of a very different kind. 
 Joan was to escape, not the hands of the 
 English but the misery of this life by a glori- 
 ous martyrdom. In St. Catherine's pre- 
 diction she had misinterpreted the word 
 "help." 
 
 St. Vincent Ferrer, when preaching at Sala- 
 manca, announced the end of the world as at 
 hand. In order to prove the truth of this 
 prediction he raised a woman to life who had 
 been dead two days, and yet the end of the 
 world did not arrive. The prophecy, like 
 that of Jonas, was conditional. Penance was 
 
 ^on. 3: 4. 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 225 
 
 done in the principal kingdoms of Europe 
 and the chastisement was avoided. 
 
 The fixed determination to reject all proph- 
 ecies, however trustworthy their signs of 
 credibility, would be neither reasonable nor 
 Christian. However, the Director should 
 show himself very slow in giving his appro- 
 bation, and especially in allowing them to be 
 made public ; and lastly, he will not take upon 
 himself the responsibility of proclaiming them. 
 
226 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 ST. IGNATIUS' RULE FOR AVOIDING ILLUSIONS 
 IN THE USE OF SUPERNATURAL SPEECH 
 
 St. Ignatius begins by laying down this 
 principle: " It belongs to God alone to give 
 consolation to the soul without preceding 
 cause, for it is the property of the Creator to 
 enter, go out and cause movements in the 
 soul bringing it all into love of His Divine 
 Majesty. I say without cause, without any 
 previous sense or knowledge of any object 
 through which such consolation would come 
 through one's own acts of the understanding 
 and will." * 
 
 Doubtless, we can make our soul pass from 
 desolation to consolation, but not in an in- 
 stant, by the sole command of our own free 
 will. We are of necessity obliged to have 
 recourse to reflections, reasoning and numer- 
 ous acts of the will, and this requires a certain 
 amount of time. 
 
 In the same way, the good and the evil 
 spirit can produce joy in a troubled soul, by 
 
 1 Spiritual Exercises, Discernment of Spirits, Week 2, Rule 2. 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 227 
 
 playing upon the understanding and the will, 
 like orators. But that again requires more 
 or less time. God only, by His Almighty 
 Power, can change the soul's state in a mo- 
 ment. If, then, the passage from desolation 
 to consolation is instantaneous, God's finger 
 is certainly there. Souls conducted along the 
 usual road have no other sign, and it is, 
 strictly speaking, sufficient. 
 
 In the case of souls led by the extraordi- 
 nary road of Contemplation, they have a 
 second sign of great value added to the former 
 — the very nature of the sudden consolation, 
 which St. Ignatius describes in the following 
 terms: " It happens very often that Our Lord 
 moves and urges our soul to such and such 
 an undertaking. He does so by opening our 
 soul, that is, by speaking in it without any 
 noise of words, and by raising it wholly and 
 entirely to His Divine Love, without its being 
 possible for us, even when we would, to resist 
 the feeling which He puts within us." 1 Here 
 will be recognized the perfect Contemplation 
 of which God alone can be the Author. 
 
 St. John of the Cross, when treating of the 
 same subject, says: " This sublime and loving 
 
 1 Premilre lettre d la sceur Rigadelle, lettre 8, pp. 42,43. 
 
228 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 knowledge of God belongs to the unitive state. 
 It is the union itself and consists of a mysteri- 
 ous touch of the Divinity on the depths of the 
 soul. . . . The devil cannot enter into a favor 
 at the same time so elevated and so profound. 
 He remains always powerless to penetrate 
 into the soul's interior and to suddenly trans- 
 form and enflame it with love, as do the 
 visits of the Well-beloved/ ' * 
 
 This principle stated, St. Ignatius draws 
 from it the following conclusion, so very use- 
 ful for the direction of the souls led by the 
 path of Contemplation: " When the spiritual 
 consolation is without any previous cause, it 
 is certain that it is free from all illusion, since, 
 as we have said, it can only come from God. 
 Yet the person who receives this consolation 
 must be very attentive and watchful in dis- 
 tinguishing the exact time of the consolation 
 from that which immediately follows. At this 
 latter time, when the soul is still all fervent 
 and, as it were, penetrated by the precious 
 remains of the consolation passed, by means 
 of its own reasoning, as a result of its natural 
 habits, and in consequence of its conceptions 
 and judgments, it forms, under the influence 
 
 1 Montee du Carmel, Bk. 2, ch. 26, t. 2, p. 319. 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 229 
 
 of the good or evil Spirit, resolutions and 
 decisions which it has not received directly 
 from God Our Lord and which, in conse- 
 quence, must be well examined before placing 
 implicit faith in them and putting them into 
 practice." x 
 
 As one sees, St. Ignatius distinguishes 
 between two periods of time: the first, that 
 very short moment when the soul raised to 
 perfect Contemplation is ingulfed in God. 
 Then it is no longer the soul that lives but 
 God Who lives in it. All error is impossible. 
 The second period of time is that which im- 
 mediately follows. The intellect and the will 
 being no longer absorbed by the knowledge 
 and love of God, one may give ear to interior 
 words having as their author either the soul 
 itself, the good Angel, or the devil. None of 
 these words are infallible. 
 
 In the first place, the interior words which 
 the soul speaks to itself are not infallible, 
 because the human intellect is liable to mis- 
 take. Let no one urge that during this second 
 period, where the soul is still entirely pene- 
 trated by the remains of perfect Contem- 
 plation, it is helped in a special way by the 
 
 1 Spiritual Exercises, Discernment of Spirits, Week 2, Rule 8. 
 
230 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 Holy Ghost. That is true, but assistance is 
 one thing, infallibility another. 
 
 As to the good Angel, he evidently intends 
 to give us good counsel, but he is sometimes 
 ignorant of the mysterious designs of Divine 
 Wisdom and can then only point out in a 
 likely way that which is most to God's glory. 
 Thus it is that the Angel Gabriel and the Per- 
 sian Angel were not of the same mind as to 
 the advisability of the return of the Jews from 
 Babylon to Jerusalem. 1 Here too, then, there 
 was no infallibility. 
 
 Lastly, not only can the devil make a 
 mistake, but his constant wish is to lead us 
 into error. The conclusion is obvious : before 
 putting the resolutions and decisions taken 
 during this second period into execution, they 
 must be seriously examined and judged by 
 one or more prudent, learned and super- 
 natural men. 
 
 St. Ignatius only speaks of a work to be 
 done, and with reason, for if it is only a 
 question of impulse towards virtue, such 
 minute examination would not be necessary. 
 Even though the devil transformed himself 
 into an angel of light, the impulse would 
 
 1 Daniel, 10: 13. 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS 231 
 
 be useful to the soul, provided it receives 
 it with humility and gratitude towards the 
 Divine Bounty. The wicked angel will de- 
 part baffled. 
 
PART V 
 Vocation to Cxtraorbtnarp (graces! 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 CONTEMPLATION IS NOT THE ONLY MEANS OF 
 ATTAINING CHRISTIAN PERFECTION 
 
 Sanctity consists essentially in the trans- 
 formation of our will into the Divine Will- 
 No one disputes this point. Now this trans- 
 formation may be obtained without the grace 
 of Contemplation, and by Meditation alone. 
 Such is the opinion of the Saints and masters 
 of the spiritual life most versed in this matter. 
 
 Let us cite some authorities : 
 
 St. Ignatius of Loyola writes to Doctor 
 Emmanuel de Miona, his former Confessor 
 at Alcala and Paris: " I beg of you twice, 
 three times over, and as many times as is 
 possible for the service of God to do what I 
 have told you, so that Our Divine Master 
 may not one day reproach me for not having 
 urged you with all the strength in my power, 
 in as much as the Spiritual Exercises are the 
 best I can conceive of, feel or understand in 
 this life, either as regards the advancement 
 man may draw from them for himself, or as 
 
 235 
 
236 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 regards the fruit, help and spiritual advantage 
 that he can draw from them for others." * 
 
 Thus, according to St. Ignatius, the Spirit- 
 ual Exercises are the best that can be con- 
 ceived of in this life for the soul's advance- 
 ment. Hence it must be concluded that their 
 methods of prayer, all of which be ong to 
 Meditation, are enough for reaching the sum- 
 mit of Christian perfection. Contemplation, 
 therefore, is not necessary for its attainment. 
 
 St. Francis of Sales says: ' Happy they 
 who lead a superhuman, ecstatic life, raised 
 above themselves, although they are not 
 transported above themse ves in prayer. 
 There are many Saints in heaven who were 
 never in ecstasy or transported in Contempla- 
 tion; for how many Martyrs and great Saints, 
 both men and women, do we not see in 
 history, who never received any favor in 
 prayer beyond that of devotion and fervor? 
 But there never was a Saint who had not 
 had ecstasy and transport of life and work, 
 overcoming himself and his natural inclina- 
 tions." 2 
 
 St. Alphonsus Liguori says: " Passive union 
 
 1 Lettres, Lettre 10, p. 50. 
 
 2 Amour de Dieu, 1: 7, c. 7, t. 5, p. 31. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 237 
 
 is not necessary in order that a soul should 
 attain perfection; it is enough for it to have 
 reached active union. . . . Active union is 
 perfect conformity of our will with that of 
 God, in which consists without the slightest 
 doubt all the perfection of the love of God." l 
 St. Teresa thus expresses her opinion: 
 u There is not a single Christian who cannot, 
 with the aid of grace, arrive at true union, 
 provided he makes every effort in his power 
 to give up his own will in order to attach 
 himself to God's will alone. Oh! how many 
 there are who say and firmly believe that they 
 are in these dispositions As for me, I assure 
 you that if they are, they have obtained what 
 they might wish for from God. They should 
 not trouble about that delicious union of 
 which I first spoke. For what is best about 
 it is that it springs from the one of which I 
 am now talking, and it is even impossible to 
 attain the first if one does not possess the 
 second: I mean that entire submission of our 
 will to that of God. How much to be desired 
 is this latter union! How happy the soul 
 which possesses it! What rest it will enjoy, 
 even in this life! . . . For this union of pure 
 
 1 Homo apostolicus, App. i: 16. 
 
238 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 conformity with the will of God to exist, it 
 is not necessary for the powers to be sus- 
 pended. God, Who is All-Powerful, has a 
 thousand ways of enriching souls and leading 
 them to these dwelling places, without making 
 them pass by the shortened road of which I 
 have spoken, I mean without raising them to 
 that union with Him from which, after a few 
 moments, they come out wholly transformed. 
 But remark well, my Daughters, that in every 
 case this mystic worm must die and that in 
 this union of pure conformity to the Divine 
 Will, its death must cost you more. Indeed, 
 in this supernatural union, where the soul ex- 
 periences such great delights in God, the 
 happiness which it finds in living a life so 
 new greatly helps in bringing about the death 
 of this worm; while in the union of conform- 
 ity, the soul must kill it itself without passing 
 outside its ordinary life. I admit, my 
 Daughters, that this latter state is much more 
 painful than the former, but the reward will 
 be so much the greater if you come out from 
 the struggle victorious. And we shall con- 
 quer, without the slightest doubt, provided 
 our will be truly united to that of God. That 
 is the union I have longed for all my life 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 239 
 
 and which I have always begged from Our 
 Lord/' * 
 
 In another part, the Saint says: " Without 
 being contemplative, she (a nun) will not fail 
 to be very perfect if she faithfully performs 
 what has been said. She can even excel the 
 others in merit, because she will have more 
 work to do at her own cost. The Divine 
 Master, treating her as a valiant soul, will 
 add to the joys which He has reserved for 
 her in the other life, all the consolations she 
 has not enjoyed in this. 2 
 
 11 There is always more safety in humility, 
 mortification, detachment and the other vir- 
 tues. As there is no danger in this path, 
 provided you are faithful in following it, have 
 no fears about attaining perfection just as 
 well as the greatest contemplatives." 3 
 
 After the Saints, listen to two other writers 
 of great authority : 
 
 In his masterly treatise on the Canonization 
 of Saints, Benedict XIV gives as a rule to the 
 Sacred Congregation of Rites these words of 
 Cardinal de Lauria: " We remark that many 
 
 1 Chateau interieur, 5 e demeure, ch. 3, t. 3, pp. 402, 403. 
 
 2 Chemin de la perfection, ch. 18, t. 3, p. 105. 
 l^Ibid., p. 107. 
 
240 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 perfect men are canonized even when there 
 has been no mention made in their process of 
 infused Contemplation. But proof is always 
 brought forward of virtues possessed in a 
 heroic degree and of miracles.' ' x 
 
 Alvarez de Paz thus expresses his view: 
 11 All the perfect are not raised to perfect 
 Contemplation, as I think I have said else- 
 where, since Almighty God has other ways of 
 making perfect men and Saints. He attracts 
 some in a marvellous way by means of afflic- 
 tions, sickness, temptations and persecutions. 
 He forms others by the labors of an active 
 life and the ministry for souls exercised with 
 very pure intentions. He leads others to 
 great sanctity by means of ordinary prayer 
 and mortification in all things. And so it 
 happens that one who is favored with great 
 gifts of Contemplation finds himself inferior 
 to another who has not received them. There 
 are perfect men, too, to whom God refuses 
 this gift because their temperament is not 
 calm enough for Contemplation ... to 
 others, so that they may give themselves 
 up entirely to the conversion of souls, from 
 which extraordinary prayer and ecstasies 
 
 1 Opera omnia, i: 3, c. 26, 8. Prati, 1840, t. 3, p. 297, a 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 241 
 
 somewhat deter them; to others, in order to 
 humiliate them for fear lest they should 
 esteem themselves too highly and lest they 
 should become too proud of these brilliant 
 gifts; to others, at length, in order to fulfil 
 the secret provisions of Holy Providence, 
 which it is not given us to know." x 
 
 In conclusion, all spiritual writers, both 
 mystic and ascetic, are agreed in affirming 
 that Contemplation is a very powerful means 
 of attaining perfection, but the preceding evi- 
 dence shows that it is not the only one. So, 
 then, the souls which have not received the 
 gift of Contemplation are not to lose courage 
 but to generously enter on the common path 
 which has been pointed out to them and be 
 assured that they will thus attain sanctity. 
 
 1 (EuvreSy t. 3, 1: 5, deuxi&me partie, c. 4. Moguntiae, 1619, 
 p. 1692. 
 
242 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 CONTEMPLATION REQUIRES A SPECIAL VOCA- 
 TION WHICH THE GREATER NUMBER OF 
 SOULS WHO MAKE MENTAL PRAYER DO NOT 
 POSSESS 
 
 Reason teaches us nothing on this subject, 
 nor does Holy Writ. To prove the point, 
 then, one must have recourse to the experi- 
 ence of the Saints and masters of the spiritual 
 life. Let us hear their evidence. 
 
 First of all St. Bernard: " When you have 
 had long practice in these virtues, ask that 
 the light of devotion may be given you — 
 that day of perfect serenity, that sabbath 
 when, like a retired soldier, you will live with- 
 out toil in the midst of all your labors and 
 with gladdened heart, and will run the way 
 of God's commandments. From that time 
 on you will perform with the utmost delight 
 and great pleasure what you formerly did 
 under compuls on and with sorrow. . . . But 
 unless I am mistaken few reach this perfection 
 in this life ; . . . many aspire to it all their 
 life long without ever attaining it. . . . Yet 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 243 
 
 if they persevere in their pious efforts, as soon 
 as they have breathed their last sigh they 
 will receive what was wisely refused them 
 during this life. Then grace by itself will 
 lead them where they formerly strove to go 
 by its help and in a short life they will fill the 
 course of many years." 1 
 
 St. Lawrence Justinian, whose heavenly 
 teaching the Church extols, 2 writes: " Prayer 
 is feeble and lifeless without grace, but aided 
 by grace it is a great help. . . . Those who 
 have deserved to receive the love of prayer 
 and inclination to devotion know this. I say 
 this because all who pray do not reach an 
 elevated prayer. Prayer, indeed, has grades 
 by which spiritual men raise themselves, 
 become dear to God and approach Him, not 
 in body but in spirit." 3 
 
 St. Ignatius of Loyola used to say that the 
 methods taught in his Spiritual Exercises 
 were suited to the majority of souls who prac- 
 tise mental prayer. On the other hand, it is 
 certain that all these methods belong to the 
 active order. The Saint believed, then, that 
 
 1 Sermo tertius de Circumcisione, circa finem. 
 
 2 Breviary, 5 September. 
 
 8 Tractatus de perfectionis gradibus, c. 12, Opera Basileas, 1560. 
 
244 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 the greater number of souls who practise 
 prayer are called to do so in an active manner. 
 
 St. Alphonsus de Liguori, who was very- 
 conversant in the experimental knowledge of 
 extraordinary graces, says: " The souls who 
 are conducted by God in supernatural ways 
 are, according to St. Teresa, very few and 
 we shall see many in Heaven who, although 
 they have not received these supernatural 
 graces, will have higher places than others 
 who have received them." x 
 
 The holy Doctor, accordingly, in his book 
 entitled The True Spouse of Jesus Christ, 
 speaks at length of active mental prayer and 
 devotes only a few lines to passive prayer. 
 
 St. Leonard of Port Maurice has written an 
 excellent little work entitled : Guide for a nun 
 who aspires to perfection. It insists at length 
 and with emphasis on active prayer, where 
 the three powers of the soul, memory, under- 
 standing*and will, are exercised; but he keeps 
 an absolute silence on all that concerns pas- 
 sive prayer. 2 This reticence on the part of a 
 Saint who had learnt by experience the highest 
 supernatural paths cannot be explained except 
 
 1 Homo apostolicus, App. I, n. 16. 
 
 2 Guide d'une religieuse, 2 e p., C. 3, Casterman, 1887, p. 107. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 245 
 
 by the conviction he held that the greater 
 number of religious women are not called to 
 passive prayer. 
 
 Benedict XIV, of whom we have already 
 spoken in the preceding chapter, again sum- 
 marizes his opinion in these words of Cardinal 
 de Lauria: " It is well known that the souls 
 raised to Contemplation, especially infused 
 Contemplation, are very rare; whilst those 
 who devote themselves to Meditation are 
 countless." l 
 
 I will conclude with the evidence of Vener- 
 able Father Louis Da Ponte, a very experi- 
 enced man in these questions. 
 
 He speaks several times in passing of this 
 subject, but in the fifteenth chapter of the 
 Life of Father Balthasar Alvarez he expressly 
 treats of it in these words: " Intimate and 
 familiar converse with God and the gift of 
 tranquil and perfect Contemplation, such as 
 we have described, are so lofty a gift that Fr. 
 Balthasar could not have attained it without 
 a special vocation from Our Lord, as he him- 
 self bears witness in his statement. It is Our 
 Lord, indeed, Who calls to this intercourse 
 whom He wills, when He wills, and as He 
 
 1 Opera, Prati, 1840, t. 3, p. 297, 8. 
 
246 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 wills, without there being any place, year or 
 fixed time for it. His only rule is His most 
 Holy Will. He makes it His delight to hold 
 converse with the children of men, but more 
 particularly still with some rather than with 
 others, by means of a grace and special privi- 
 lege which we call vocation. It is an inspira- 
 tion, a movement, a powerful affection which 
 He stamps upon the soul and by means of 
 which He turns it to this lofty form of prayer, 
 at the same time giving it the aptitude and 
 capacity for it. For all are not called to it, 
 all are not fitted for it and it would be rash 
 and presumptuous to aspire to it. . . . The 
 mass of the faithful who are less enlightened 
 or less capable or much taken up with tem- 
 poral affairs, are called only to vocal prayer 
 and the general and, as it were, far off con- 
 sideration of some of the divine mysteries, 
 principally those which inspire a holy fear of 
 God and awe of His rigorous justice and so 
 urge men to give up their sins. 
 
 11 Others of the faithful, represented by the 
 Seventy Ancients, are called by God to draw 
 nearer to Him by the exercises of mental 
 prayer, a deeper meditation on the Divine 
 mysteries and more burning affections of love 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 247 
 
 and confidence. ... To this class belong 
 religious and secular persons who walk the 
 ordinary path of mental prayer, a path of 
 which the safety, necessity and abundant 
 fruits will be proved. . . . But there are 
 others, although a small band, who are repre- 
 sented by Moses and whom Our Lord in a 
 quite special vocation raises to the highest 
 degree of prayer and union with His Divine 
 Majesty. He makes them enter the heavenly 
 darkness and the cloud which blinds the eyes, 
 so as to prevent them seeing the things of 
 earth, and He opens their eyes that they may 
 contemplate their Creator, with Whom they 
 hold an intimate and familiar converse which 
 is accompanied by great pleasure — to some 
 more, to others less, according as He deigns 
 to communicate Himself to His creatures/ ■ 1 
 
 An important question remains to be 
 settled. Do all souls called to Contempla- 
 tion reach its highest point, namely perfect 
 Contemplation ? The greater number of these 
 souls do not. 
 
 Three causes are generally assigned. 
 
 1 Ven. Fr. Louis Da Ponte, Vie du P. B. Alvarez, ch. 15, Bouix, 
 1873, pp. 159, 161 and 162. The virtues of Ven. Louis Da Ponte 
 were declared heroic by Clement XIII in 1759. 
 
248 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 First, absence of vocation. All the souls 
 which have received a vocation to the religious 
 life are not called to heroism in it. All the 
 souls which have received a vocation to Con- 
 templation are not called to that which is 
 highest in it. " Let us not presume," says 
 St. John of the Cross, " to receive these sub- 
 lime touches of knowledge and of love before 
 we have undergone numerous tribulations and 
 supported the greatest burdens of painful 
 labor and purification. Yet such a rigorous 
 purification is not necessary to attain the 
 lower degrees^of perfection, beyond which the 
 greater number of souls are not called to 
 pass." x 
 
 Next, it is the want of generosity and cor- 
 respondence with grace which is the obstacle 
 to certain souls: 
 
 " Great is my sorrow/ * says St. Teresa, 
 11 when, out of so many souls who to my 
 knowledge reach that point (the prayer of 
 quiet) and who ought to pass beyond, I see 
 so small a number who do, that I am ashamed 
 to speak of it. . . . Those who find within 
 them such a gift from God may justly look 
 upon themselves as God's friends. It only 
 
 1 Nuit obscure, i: 2, ch. 12, t. 3, p. 400. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 249 
 
 remains for them to immolate themselves for 
 His sake with the devotion which a noble 
 friendship, even in the world, imposes/ ' 1 
 
 Lastly, souls are to be found who make no 
 progress because they lack a virtuous, learned 
 and experienced Director. These are the in- 
 deed remarkable words of St. John of the 
 Cross : 
 
 " When God begins to shed this intimate 
 unction upon the soul which is the result of 
 a loving, sweet, peaceful, retired knowledge, 
 far removed from the senses and thoughts 
 natural to the human mind, He keeps it in 
 this state without allowing it to taste or to 
 meditate upon any truth of Heaven or earth, 
 because He wholly absorbs it in this precious 
 unction which inclines it to solitude and rest. 
 Then will come one of those Directors who 
 knows only how to give great blows with his 
 hammer, like a blacksmith on his anvil, and, 
 since he knows no other doctrine, he will 
 speak like this: ' Nonsense, move on and give 
 up this method; you are losing your time. 
 All this is only sloth. Take a subject of 
 prayer and meditate upon it. Make acts — 
 you must do something of your own and stir 
 
 1 Vie par elle-tnime, ch. 15; t. 1, pp. 160, 161. 
 
250 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 yourself up. The rest is all an illusion and 
 vain amusement/ Since these Directors are 
 ignorant of the degrees of prayer and the ways 
 of the spirit, they do not see that the acts 
 with which they mean to overburden the soul 
 have already been made, and that the way 
 along which one passes with the help of 
 reasoning has been gone over from beginning 
 to end. . . . Not understanding that this soul 
 has entered upon the life of the spirit, where 
 there is no longer reasoning or feeling, where 
 God acts upon it in a very intimate manner 
 by speaking to its heart in solitude, they add 
 to the divine unction, human unction arising 
 from ordinary knowledge and common con- 
 solations with which they force the soul to 
 nourish itself. Thus, they make the soul lose, 
 together with solitude and recollection, the 
 wonderful painting which God was working 
 to perfect in it. Hence the result is that the 
 soul does not do what is required of it on the 
 one hand, because that has become impossible 
 to it, and on the other hand, that it does not 
 profit either of what God wanted to do in it." 1 
 The greater number of souls called to Con- 
 templation, then, do not reach perfect Con- 
 
 1 Viveflamme & amour, Str. 3, vers 3, n. 8; t. 4, pp. 574, 575. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 251 
 
 templation either through their own fault, 
 because they do not correspond with grace, 
 or, without any fault on their part, because 
 they have no vocation or have no Director 
 capable of guiding them. 
 
252 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 BY WHAT SIGNS MAY IT BE RECOGNIZED THAT 
 A SOUL IS CALLED TO CONTEMPLATION? 
 
 I omit the extremely rare case where a soul 
 is immediately raised to perfect Contempla- 
 tion. It is a miracle of grace which we admire 
 in Our Lord's Apostles on the day of Pente- 
 cost; in a Catherine of Sienna, raised to 
 ecstatic union as soon as she was six years 
 old; 1 in a St. Francis Xavier 2 and other 
 Saints. Such favors fall under no law. I am 
 speaking here only of what commonly hap- 
 pens. 
 
 The two following signs are necessary in 
 order to recognize whether a soul is called to 
 Contemplation. 
 
 First, the impossibility of meditating. 
 When God wishes to raise a soul to Contem- 
 plation which essentially excludes all reason- 
 ing, He begins by withdrawing from it the 
 possibility of applying itself to the effort of 
 meditating. This first sign is not enough, 
 
 1 Bollandists, t. 12, p. 870, n. 29. 2 Breviary, 3 December. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 253 
 
 since the powerlessness may arise from several 
 other causes, i 
 
 The first is tepidity, which removes all 
 impulse towards spiritual things, especially 
 towards Meditation. The second is the usual 
 spiritual dryness which makes all that is con- 
 nected with prayer very painful. The third 
 is a state of ill-health. A tired brain prevents 
 reflection and general weakness is incompat- 
 ible with real work on the part of the under- 
 standing. The fourth is a movement of the 
 Holy Ghost which carries the soul to affective 
 prayer where the reasoning ceases to exist. 
 
 A second sign is therefore necessarily re- 
 quired, one which excludes the four hypotheses 
 of tepidity, ordinary spiritual dryness, a trial 
 arising from bodily health, and a movement 
 of grace towards affections. It consists in a 
 simple and loving knowledge of God which 
 takes possession of the soul in the midst of a 
 profound peace, when it places itself in the 
 presence of God. It is not, however, neces- 
 sary that this loving attention to God should 
 dispel all wandering of spirit; it is enough for 
 it to be, as it were, a blessed weight which 
 attracts the distracted soul and leads it back 
 unceasingly to its Divine Object. 
 
254 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 " As soon as the soul," says St. John of the 
 Cross, " places itself in the presence of God, 
 it enters into possession of that profound 
 peace where it drinks long draughts of the 
 living waters of wisdom and love, without it 
 being necessary to bring this water through 
 the aqueducts of consideration, figures and 
 forms. Thus a man who is urged by a burn- 
 ing thirst quenches it without effort on the 
 bank of a clear stream. . . . Yet let us not 
 forget that even in the midst of this recollec- 
 tion the fickleness of the imagination is wont 
 to weary the soul in spite of the latter' s will, 
 which, far from taking part in the wanderings 
 of the former power, experiences a keen suffer- 
 ing at seeing its peace and consolation 
 troubled/ ' 1 
 
 St. Jane Frances de Chant al says in the 
 same sense: " The most certain mark (of 
 vocation) is when a soul delights in being 
 alone, lovingly attentive to God, yet without 
 any special consideration, in interior peace, 
 quiet and rest, without the powers, memory, 
 understanding and will (at least not for any 
 length of time), doing any work by passing 
 from any subject to another, thus remaining 
 
 1 Montie du Carmel, i: 2, ch* 14, t. 2, pp. 196, 198. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 255 
 
 attentive and gazing upon God in a general 
 and loving manner." * 
 
 I will conclude with another important 
 point. As has just been said, no active mental 
 prayer, however perfect, can unfailingly lead 
 to infused Contemplation. At most, it can 
 lead only to the boundary, which cannot be 
 crossed unless God grants the free gift of grace, 
 which He gives to whom He wills. But at 
 least are not supernatural Visions and Speech 
 a sure sign of a vocation to Contemplation? 
 A young man hears, as did St. Aloysius of 
 Gonzaga, an interior voice telling him to enter 
 the religious life. Must he conclude that he 
 will be raised to Contemplation if he obeys 
 this voice? This is not the necessary con- 
 clusion. Yet supernatural graces are often 
 connected, and one should, while exercising 
 discretion, take a divine message of this kind 
 into account. 
 
 1 GLuvres, Plon, 1876, t. 3, p. 297. 
 
256 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 HOW THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES OF ST. IGNATIUS 
 ARE A PREPARATION FOR INFUSED CONTEM- 
 PLATION 
 
 The vocation to infused Contemplation 
 has a twofold cause: God's predilection and 
 the merits of Jesus Christ, through which all 
 graces come to us. To show that this is so, 
 God sometimes grants this favor to souls 
 which are in no way prepared for it and 
 refuses it to those adorned with great virtue. 
 Yet Divine Wisdom most often takes into 
 account certain dispositions which render a 
 soul more fit to profit of the signal grace of 
 Contemplation. The purpose of this chapter 
 is to examine how far the Exercises of St. 
 Ignatius place a soul which applies itself to 
 them in the favorable conditions. 
 
 According to St. Bernard, 1 St. Ignatius, 2 
 St. John of the Cross, 3 St. Teresa, 4 The Imi- 
 
 1 Sermo 46 in Cant. 
 
 2 St. Ignace, Vie par le P. Bartoli, 1 : 5, ch. 5. 
 
 * Montee du Carmel, 1: 1, ch. 11; Cantiques, str. 29; Vive 
 flammed' amour, str. 3. 
 
 4 Chdteau intirieur, 4 e dem,, ch, 2, 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 257 
 
 tation of Christ, 1 etc., four things are neces- 
 sary to correspond with a contemplative 
 vocation: Abnegation, humility, charity and 
 calmness of soul in prayer. 
 
 It is easy to prove that these four conditions 
 are fully realized in the Exercises. 
 
 i. The Exercises are a continual lesson in 
 abnegation. " Let each one think," says St. 
 Ignatius, " that he will benefit himself in all 
 spiritual things in proportion as he goes out 
 of his self-love, will and interest/ ' 2 Such is 
 the principle which the Saint develops 
 throughout his book, from the beginning to 
 the end. 
 
 2. Not only do the Exercises teach humility, 
 but they are also penetrated with it as with a 
 wholesome oil. Thus it is that in the funda- 
 mental meditation on Two Standards, the 
 three following degrees which lead to per- 
 fection are read on the Standard of Jesus 
 Christ: " The first, poverty as opposed to 
 riches; the second, insult and contempt as 
 opposed to worldly honor; the third, humility 
 as opposed to pride. From these three 
 degrees men will be led to all other virtues/' 3 
 
 1 Bk. i, ch. ii ; Bk. 4, ch. 31. 
 
 2 Spiritual Exercises, Election, Personal amendment. 
 * Ibid., Two Standards, Part 2, Point 3. 
 
258 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 And again, when speaking of consummate per- 
 fection, a passionate love of the cross, St. 
 Ignatius calls it the Third Degree of Humility, 
 his intention being to make us understand 
 that without this virtue the sublime edifice 
 would fall to pieces, like a house without 
 foundations. 
 
 • And in a more general way, whoever studies 
 the book of the Exercises, easily recognizes that 
 St. Ignatius has there spoken out of the abund- 
 ance of a heart deeply attached to humility, 
 and he thus preluded the wonderful doctrine 
 which he came from the heights of Heaven to 
 teach to St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi. " I, 
 Ignatius, have been chosen by the Mother of 
 your Spouse to instruct you on humility. So 
 hear my words. Humility ought to be poured 
 into the hearts of novices like oil into a lamp. 
 And just as the oil fills the whole lamp, so all 
 the powers of their souls must be filled with 
 humility. Again, just as a lamp cannot give 
 light without oil, so the novices cannot shed 
 upon the monastery the brightness of per- 
 fection and sanctity if care is not taken to 
 bring them to know themselves and to con- 
 stantly train and test them in humility. 
 They must be taught, then, how indispensable 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 259 
 
 to a true nun is this virtue, which is nothing 
 but the unbroken consciousness of their 
 nothingness and a perpetual joy in all that 
 can inspire them with a sincere contempt for 
 themselves, until all the powers of their soul 
 are perfectly regulated." 1 
 
 3. No meditation book is superior to the 
 Exercises in arousing in the heart an ardent 
 charity. As soon as the soul has cleansed 
 itself of its sins and evil inclinations, every- 
 thing in the Contemplations is arranged so as 
 to produce a love of God, generous even to 
 making a total offering of self, pure even to 
 forgetting self-interest so as to think only of 
 God's, ardent even to desiring what is most 
 contrary to nature, persevering even to the 
 last sigh. I do not need to prove this; it has 
 already been done in the work on Ordinary 
 Prayer. 2 
 
 4. The methods of prayer in the Exercises 
 establish the soul in calmness, peace, rest of 
 mind, as far as human weakness assisted by 
 ordinary grace allows. This too I have pre- 
 viously shown. 3 
 
 1 Vie de sainte Madeleine de Pazzi, par le P. Cepari, ch. II. 
 
 2 Ordinary Prayer, Part 5, ch. 1, 2. 
 8 Ibid., ch, 1, 3, 
 
260 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 In conclusion: Let the souls to whom God 
 has granted the grace of an attraction to the 
 Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius trust them- 
 selves to its spirit and methods without fear. 
 If these souls are called to infused Contem- 
 plation, they will here find a sure and easy- 
 means of fully corresponding with their sub- 
 lime vocation. If the contrary supposition 
 is true, the Exercises will lead them far on 
 the road of solid virtue and true sanctity. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 261 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 TO WHAT EXTENT MAY EXTRAORDINARY 
 GRACES BE DESIRED? 
 
 If it is a question of distinct supernatural 
 graces, such as Visions and Speech, they are 
 not to be desired. This is fully evident from 
 the second chapter of Part IV. If, on the 
 contrary, it is a question of confused and gen- 
 eral graces accompanied by admiration and 
 love, in a word, of the graces of Contempla- 
 tion, the answer is different according to cases. 
 
 If God has shown by sure signs that a soul 
 has already received the quite free grace of 
 passive prayer, it may desire and ask in 
 prayer to make progress in this. Yet this 
 desire must be accompanied by humility and 
 detachment. By humility, so that the soul 
 shall esteem itself unworthy of this favor; 
 by detachment, so that it may desire the grace 
 only so as to better sanctify itself and return 
 more glory to God. This is the universal 
 counsel. 
 
 Thus St. Ignatius wrote to St. Francis 
 Borgia, who had already been raised to the 
 
262 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 prayer of Contemplation: " I do not mean by 
 that, that we should seek for them (super- 
 natural gifts) solely for the satisfaction or 
 pleasure we find in them. No indeed. But 
 recognizing within us that without these gifts 
 all our thoughts, words and works are con- 
 fused, cold and troubled, we should desire 
 these gifts so that by their means these 
 thoughts, words and works may become fer- 
 vent, clear and righteous to God's greater 
 service. From this it results that we ought 
 to wish for these precious gifts, wholly or in 
 part, and these spiritual graces, as far as with 
 their assistance we shall be able to procure 
 greater glory for God." l 
 
 If, on the contrary, no grace of passive 
 prayer at all has been received, we say with 
 St. Alphonsus de Liguori that it is surer not 
 to have the slightest desire for supernatural 
 graces in prayer and to aspire only at attain- 
 ing sanctity by the usual way. Here are his 
 words: " Graces which cut us off from faith 
 are to be rejected with all one's strength, since 
 they consist in certain distinct knowledge, as 
 do Visions and revelations. Those which are 
 consistent with faith, on the contrary, should 
 
 1 Lettres, Lettre 58, pp. 269, 270. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 263 
 
 not be rejected, such as confused and general 
 knowledge and divine touches which unite the 
 soul to God. Nay more, the soul may humbly 
 ask for and desire them, with the object of 
 uniting itself more and more to God and of 
 strengthening itself in His holy Love. Yet 
 this is meant for souls who already receive 
 like favors, since for the others the surest way 
 is to desire and beg for only the active union 
 which is, as has already been said, the union 
 of our will with God's." x 
 
 This is a very wise doctrine, for generally, 
 when the heart is elsewhere, there remains no 
 desire of perfecting oneself in one's state. 
 Consequently, when a soul which is being led 
 by ordinary prayer aspires to Contemplation, 
 it has no longer either attraction or courage to 
 sanctify itself in its own way, which is Medi- 
 tation. 
 
 That is the first and very grave reason. 
 There are others, which St. Teresa explains 
 in these terms: " I have not the slightest 
 doubt, my Daughters, that you long to soon 
 see yourselves in this state, and you are right. 
 For, I repeat, the soul cannot understand 
 either the graces with which God then favors 
 
 1 Homo apostolicus, App. i , n. 23. 
 
264 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 it or the love with which He draws it to Him. 
 It is, then, right for you to desire to learn how 
 one attains a similar happiness. I will tell 
 you what I know about it, though speaking 
 only of God's usual manner of procedure and 
 leaving on one side the extraordinary cases 
 where He grants this grace only because He 
 so wills it. When it is a question of this kind, 
 He has His own reasons, which it is not our 
 place to seek to examine. 
 
 "First, my Daughters, practise what I 
 recommended in the preceding dwellings ; and 
 then humility, since it is by this virtue that 
 Our Lord allows Himself to be overcome and 
 yields to all our desires. The first mark by 
 which you may recognize whether you have 
 this virtue, is the belief of your unworthiness 
 to receive so eminent a favor as that of enjoy- 
 ing God, and not even thinking that it ought 
 ever to be granted to you in this life. But, 
 you will say, how can we obtain these graces 
 if we make no effort to that end? 
 
 " My answer is that there is no better means 
 than that which I have just pointed out, and 
 that of refraining from all effort, and this for 
 five reasons. The first, because what is above 
 all necessary in order to receive a similar 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 265 
 
 favor, is a disinterested love of God. The 
 second, because it is want of humility to 
 flatter oneself that a thing of so great value can 
 be obtained by such wretched services as ours. 
 The third, because the true preparation for 
 the reception of such favors, after having 
 offended God, is not to long for consolations, 
 but to imitate Our Lord in desiring to suffer 
 for Him as He has suffered for us. The 
 fourth, because God is net obliged to give us 
 these graces in this world, without which we 
 can save our souls, as He is obliged to give us 
 His glory in the other, if we keep His com- 
 mandments. Besides, He knows better than 
 we what is best for us and which are the souls 
 that have a true love for Him. That it is so, 
 we are not allowed to doubt. I myself know 
 people who, while traversing this path of love, 
 that is, aspiring solely to serve their crucified 
 Jesus, not only do not desire or ask Him for 
 these consolations and pleasures, but beg of 
 Him not to give them to them in this life. 
 What I say is indeed a fact. The fifth reason is 
 that we should be wasting time in seeking these 
 pleasures. This water, like that of content- 
 ment, does not come by means of aqueducts. 
 If God, who is their source, does not make 
 
266 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 them gush forth, we should be tiring ourselves 
 to no purpose. All our desires, all our medi- 
 tations, all our tears and all the efforts which 
 we can make for this are useless. God alone 
 gives this heavenly water to him whom He 
 wills. He not seldom gives it only when one 
 is thinking least about it. We belong to Him, 
 my Sisters; let Him dispose of us according 
 to His will and lead us as shall be pleasing to 
 
 Him." * 
 
 Nothing more in conformity with the Gospel 
 and nothing more discreet could be said. 
 Contemplation is the beginning of eternal 
 beatitude and is consequently a great pro- 
 motion for the soul which is introduced to it. 
 The best disposition, then, in attaining it, 
 if God calls, is humility, according to Our 
 Divine Master's teaching: " Every one that 
 exalteth himself, shall be humbled; and he 
 that humbleth himself, shall be exalted.' ' 2 
 
 But in what does this true humility con- 
 sist? Here is Our Lord's answer: " When 
 thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down 
 in the first place, lest perhaps one more honor- 
 
 1 Chateau interieur, 4 e demeure, ch. 2, towards the end; t. 3, 
 
 PP- 363> 364- 
 
 2 Luke 14: 11. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 267 
 
 able than thou is invited by him ; and he that 
 invited thee and him, come and say to thee, 
 Give this man place: and then thou begin 
 with shame to take the lowest place. But 
 when thou art invited, go, sit down in the 
 lowest place: that when he who invited thee 
 cometh, he may say to thee: l Friend, go up 
 higher/ Then shalt thou have glory before 
 them that sit at table with thee." x 
 
 To pass from the parable to the reality, the 
 banquet is mental prayer, where the soul is 
 nourished with heavenly food and where there 
 are two kinds of places, Meditation and Con- 
 templation. The surest means of arriving 
 at the more distinguished place of Contempla- 
 tion is to remain in the more humble one of 
 Meditation until the Master, who is God, 
 says: " Go up higher." 
 
 We read again in the Holy Gospel that 
 James and John, the beloved disciples of Our 
 Saviour, went up to Him and asked to be 
 seated one on the right and one on the left of 
 Him in His glory. And Jesus answered them : 
 11 You know not what you ask. Can you 
 drink of the chalice that I drink of, or be bap- 
 tized with the baptism wherewith I am bap- 
 
 1 Luke 14: 8, etc. 
 
268 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 tized? But they said to Him: We can. And 
 Jesus saith to them: You shall indeed drink 
 of the chalice that I drink of: and with the 
 baptism wherewith I am baptized, you shall 
 be baptized. But to sit on My right hand, 
 or My left, is not Mine to give to you, but to 
 them for whom it is prepared/ ' l 
 
 Alas, how many souls who earnestly desire 
 and ask for Contemplation without having 
 real signs of vocation fall into the same mis- 
 take as the sons of Zebedee! They deserve 
 the lesson which Our Lord gave these dear 
 disciples: " You know not what you ask. 
 Can you drink of the chalice that I drink of; 
 or be baptized with the baptism wherewith I 
 am baptized? " 
 
 Lastly, even when Contemplation, a per- 
 fectly free gift, has been long desired and 
 prayed for, it often happens that it is not 
 attained; from which results a disastrous de- 
 ception in the spiritual life. What a trial for 
 a soul! Its prayers, its efforts in the practice 
 of virtue and sacrifices of every kind were 
 intended for years to raise it up to the delight- 
 ful source of Contemplation, so that it might 
 there drink the waters of a heavenly joy. 
 
 1 Mark 10: 35-40. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 269 
 
 But the source always remains distant and it 
 has never been able to slake its thirst at it. 
 Sadness, discouragement and bitterness over- 
 whelm it, a great obstacle to progress in vir- 
 tue, according to the word of the Holy Ghost : 
 u Sadness hath killed many, and there is no 
 profit in it." l 
 
 It must be admitted that an indifference 
 so great that one does not desire Contempla- 
 tion more than Meditation, because one is 
 seeking in prayer only God's good pleasure, 
 is enough to avert these dangers; but such 
 perfect virtue is very rare. If, then, there are 
 no certain signs of vocation to Contemplation 
 it is surer to aspire to holiness only by the 
 usual path of Meditation. 
 
 1 Ecclus. 30: 25. 
 
270 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 TO WHAT EXTENT IS THE READING OF BOOKS 
 TREATING OF EXTRAORDINARY STATES TO 
 BE ALLOWED TO PIOUS SOULS? 
 
 Reading of this kind is neither to be coun- 
 selled nor permitted to all pious souls indis- 
 criminately. 
 
 A first unhappy result would be the stirring 
 up in several of them the imprudent desire for 
 extraordinary graces, a desire which would 
 inevitably be accompanied by the serious 
 drawbacks which have just been pointed out. 1 
 
 A second, and still more lamentable result, 
 would be to persuade souls who are given to 
 self -analysis, that they have the character- 
 istics of a true vocation to extraordinary 
 paths, which in reality they have not. A 
 dangerous error and one difficult to dispel. 
 St. Francis of Sales knew such illusions well: 
 
 " With regard to the danger there is in 
 wanting to know so many ways of attaining 
 perfection/ - he says, " I remember having 
 spoken to two nuns belonging to two well 
 
 1 See the preceding chapter. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 271 
 
 reformed orders, one of whom by dint of hav- 
 ing read Blessed Teresa's books, learnt so 
 well to speak like her that she seemed to be a 
 little Mother Teresa. And she herself be- 
 lieved it, picturing to herself so vividly all 
 that Mother Saint Teresa had done during 
 her life, that she believed that she herself did 
 quite the same, even going so far as to have 
 bindings of mind and suspension of its powers, 
 just as she read that the Saint had had; so 
 that she spoke of them very well. There are 
 others who, by dint of thinking of the life of 
 St. Catherine of Sienna and St. Catherine of 
 Genoa, think that they are St. Catherines by 
 imitation." * Opposition must be made to 
 such evils from the beginning. 
 
 All exaggeration, however, must be avoided. 
 If it is a case of humble, wise and prudent 
 souls who esteem solid virtue above all else, 
 nothing stands in the way of their being 
 allowed or even advised to make reading of 
 this kind. It would be both too severe and 
 really not wise to forbid them to read this 
 kind of books, whether they have already been 
 called to extraordinary paths, or whether, 
 having been led by the usual road, they simply 
 
 1 Vrais entretiens spirituals, (f entr., t. 6, pp. 139, 140. 
 
272 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 possess the desire of raising their heart to 
 heavenly thoughts. 
 
 Experience teaches this: Souls who, after 
 having obtained advice, read with a pure in- 
 tention these books burning with love of God, 
 find in them disdain for the world, and ardent 
 love of God and an insatiable desire of working 
 and suffering much for His glory. These are 
 signal advantages of which souls ought not to 
 be lightly deprived. 
 
 But in order to obtain this blessed result, the 
 mystic writings must in the first place be sure 
 in doctrine, otherwise the words of the Gospel 
 will be seen to be realized: " if the blind lead 
 the blind, both fall into the pit." x In the 
 second place, they must be especially calcu- 
 lated to increase Divine love in the soul, with 
 all its accompanying virtues. Such are the 
 works of St. Bernard, St. Bona venture, St. 
 John of the Cross, St. Francis of Sales, St. 
 Alphonsus Rodriguez, St. Alphonsus Liguori, 
 St. Teresa, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Ger- 
 trude, St. Catherine of Genoa, Blessed Angela 
 of Foligno, Blessed Margaret Mary and other 
 writers, whose secure teaching raises the soul 
 to heavenly thoughts, makes it love God more 
 
 1 Matth. 15: 14. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 273 
 
 and inspires it with a burning zeal to work 
 for His glory. 
 
 Finally, this reading, however excellent it 
 may be, cannot dispense with the advice of a 
 virtuous, learned, prudent and experienced 
 Director. 
 
274 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 WHAT IS TO BE THE CONDUCT OF A SOUL 
 RAISED TO CONTEMPLATION WHEN MAKING 
 A PRIVATE RETREAT? 
 
 It is evident that this soul should follow the 
 attraction of grace both as to the choice of 
 subject and method of prayer. The guidance 
 of the Holy Ghost, Who communicates Him- 
 self in a very special manner to it, must always 
 be respected, without prejudice, however, to 
 the control of a learned and prudent Director. 
 Yet except a quite special and contrary attrac- 
 tion be felt, we believe that this soul will gain 
 by taking a book of serious retreat, such as the 
 Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. St. Fran- 
 cis of Sales praises them in the following 
 words : " It is a holy method well-known to the 
 early Christians, but since then almost en- 
 tirely discarded, until that great servant of 
 God, Ignatius of Loyola, brought it into use 
 again/ ' x St. Charles Borromeo used to say 
 of these Exercises: " They are my whole 
 
 1 Traite de V amour de Dieu, 1 : 12, ch. 8. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 275 
 
 library/ ' l St. Leonard of Port Maurice of 
 the Order of Friars Minor, esteemed them so 
 highly that he composed a whole book of com- 
 mentaries upon them. 2 
 
 It is very easy to justify the advice just 
 given. In the first place, every contemplative 
 soul should, during its retreat, purify itself 
 from the stains of sins and imperfections accu- 
 mulated during the year. It should, in 
 addition, fill itself with the spirit of the Gospel, 
 so entirely opposed to that of the world. And 
 lastly, it must apply itself more and more to 
 the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ Our 
 Lord, from Whom all grace comes to us. In 
 all these ends the book of the Exercises cannot 
 fail to be of great use to it, at least for the 
 reading and considerations which it is well to 
 make during a retreat. 
 
 And then this privileged soul does not know 
 what measure of this entirely free grace of 
 Contemplation it will receive during prayer, 
 and is rashly exposing itself to the danger of 
 being invaded by distractions if it has pre- 
 pared no subject. 
 
 St. Teresa had received the grace of Con- 
 
 1 Bollandists, t. 34, p. 798, 94. 
 
 * CEuvres de saint Leonard, Casterman, 1886. 
 
276 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 templation, and yet St. Francis Borgia ad- 
 vised her to begin to pray by applying her 
 mind to a mystery of the Passion, and if after- 
 wards Our Lord raised her to a supernatural 
 state without any effort on her own part, she 
 should give herself up to His guidance. 1 St. 
 Jane Frances de Chant al, who was raised to 
 Contemplation, nevertheless prepared her 
 points of prayer during her yearly retreats. 
 We read this in her order of the day: " In the 
 morning as soon as I am dressed and have 
 read my points of prayer, I make it. . . . 
 When the bell for office rings and I am not 
 going, I say it in a low voice, then I read my 
 second point of prayer. . . . After Vespers I 
 read a little and prepare my subject of 
 prayer." 2 
 
 This humble way of acting, in short, is 
 quite in harmony with Our Divine Master's 
 teaching: in order to deserve being raised to 
 the first place, we must begin by taking the 
 last. It is, too, richly blessed by God, as 
 experience proves. When a simple, humble, 
 contemplative soul prepares from a solid book 
 the points of the Annunciation, the Nativity, 
 
 1 Vie par elle-meme, ch. 24; t. 1, p. 278. 
 
 2 (Euvres de saint Chantal, Ed. Plon, t. 2, pp. 68, 69. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 277 
 
 the Hidden Life, the Crucifixion and other 
 subjects, it not rarely happens that God, 
 Who exalts the humble, copiously pours upon 
 its intellect and heart the living waters of 
 wisdom and love, throwing sublime light on 
 all these mysteries. These the soul would 
 not have received had it neglected to prepare 
 the points. Contemplative souls, however, 
 must not, in the preparation and especially 
 in the making of the meditation, be tied down 
 to the same methods as souls led by the usual 
 path. These souls, who are most often 
 raised to Supernatural Recollection, cannot 
 consider a mystery as is. done in Meditation, 
 and the action of the Holy Ghost must be 
 fully respected. Even suppose that all super- 
 natural grace has been taken from them as a 
 trial, these souls should be allowed to follow 
 their individual attraction which leads them 
 to meditate in a more peaceful and affec- 
 tionate way. 1 
 
 But above all, if at the very moment these 
 souls place themselves in the presence of God, 
 they feel a delightful peace take possession of 
 them, if they drink long draughts of the living 
 waters of wisdom and love in a simple and 
 
 1 See Part 2, ch. 2. 
 
278 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 loving gaze upon God, they should obey the 
 Divine call and without fear give up the sub- 
 ject prepared. One must not, it is true, take 
 a higher place of one's own accord, for that 
 would be pride. But it would be equally 
 strange and foolish not to comply with the 
 Master's gentle invitation at the banquet: 
 " Friend, go up higher." * 
 
 This must be the conduct of the contem- 
 plative soul when God invites it to imperfect 
 Contemplation, and with much more reason, 
 when it feels called to perfect Contemplation 
 and ;the wounds of love. These words of the 
 Divine Spouse are addressed to those who 
 direct such souls: u I adjure you, O daugh- 
 ters of Jerusalem, by the roes and harts of 
 ±he fields, that you stir not up, nor awake 
 my beloved, till she please." 2 
 
 11 There are Directors," says St. John of the 
 Cross, " who disturb the repose of calm and 
 peaceful Contemplation, in which God places 
 these souls and where they aspire to dwell. 
 They force them to meditate, to reason out 
 and produce acts, in spite of the dislike, 
 repugnance, dryness and distractions they 
 find in so doing. . . . Now, since these souls 
 
 L Luke 14: 10. * Cant. 3: 5. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 279 
 
 can no longer do this nor devote themselves 
 to the exercises of the past, because the time 
 is over for them and it is no longer their 
 method, they are a prey to a twofold anguish, 
 believing they are rushing to destruction. 
 Their guides only confirm this distressing 
 thought, throwing them into dryness and 
 making them lose the precious unctions they 
 received from God in solitude and prayer — 
 an immense misfortune. Instead of this 
 gentle rest in God, only a little sadness is left 
 to them and a life dragged out in following 
 the most usual paths, so that these poor souls 
 experience on the one hand an irreparable 
 loss, and on the other, fatigue themselves in 
 vain. These men know very little of the 
 spiritual life. They are strangely wanting in 
 the supreme respect due to Our Saviour, 
 and they wrong Him, in daring to inter- 
 fere with His Divine work by their clumsy 
 methods.' ' x 
 
 This does not mean, however, that such souls 
 can dispense with a Director, Contemplative 
 souls who make private retreats, have posi- 
 tive need of a capable guide, or at least of 
 having their method of prayer previously 
 
 1 Viveflamme oV 'amour ; Strophe 3, n. n, t. 4, pp. 585, 586. 
 
280 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 receive the approval of a man conversant 
 with supernatural ways. They otherwise 
 run the risk of falling into serious illu- 
 sions. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 281 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WHAT SHARE SHOULD RELIGIOUS RAISED TO 
 CONTEMPLATION TAKE IN GENERAL RE- 
 TREATS? 
 
 It is a mistake to believe that contemplative 
 souls cannot profit of the points of a retreat 
 given to the community, because God instructs 
 them better in Contemplation in a single day 
 than the best books in many weeks. These 
 souls indeed need to be more penetrated by 
 the pure spirit of the Gospel in proportion as 
 they are favored by higher graces. Now, it 
 is in the order of Providence that the spirit of 
 Jesus Christ Our Lord should fully enter a 
 soul only by means of human instruction. 
 Thus has the Eternal Wisdom ordained. The 
 Gospel has been spread throughout the world 
 not by the interior action of the Holy Ghost 
 alone, but by the preaching of Apostles, and 
 the infallible interpretation of the revealed 
 doctrine is not reserved to the great contem- 
 platives but to the dogmatic teaching of the 
 Sovereign Pontiff and of the Councils. 
 
282 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 A second advantage of general retreats is 
 the lavish graces bestowed when a number of 
 hearts unite in prayer. " If two of you," says 
 Our Lord, " shall consent upon earth concern- 
 ing any thing whatsoever they shall ask, it 
 shall be done to them by My Father Who is 
 in Heaven. For where there are two or three 
 gathered together in My name, there I am in 
 the midst of them." x 
 
 The prayer of the Apostles in the Cenacle 
 with the holy women and Mary the Mother 
 of Jesus was answered by the greatest streams 
 of wisdom and grace that have ever existed. 2 
 The Cenacle transforming contemplative souls 
 is sometimes the general retreat. In any case, 
 they will always find there abundant light and 
 burning love. 
 
 Let it be enough for me to cite the authority 
 of St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi in support of 
 this. In her convent of Florence, several of 
 the nuns were led by the path of Contempla- 
 tion and yet, says her biographer, " She under- 
 stood the aim and method of the Spiritual 
 Exercises of St. Ignatius so well, that from that 
 time until the end of her life it was she who 
 gave them to her Sisters, teaching them 
 
 x Matth. 18: 19, 20. * Acts 1: 14. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 283 
 
 exactly how to put into practice the lights and 
 inspirations which God communicated to 
 them by this precious means. To this is due 
 the custom which this venerable convent has 
 maintained of making the Spiritual Exercises 
 every year; which contribute more and more 
 to perfecting the nuns in the spirit and prac- 
 tice of holy prayer/ ' x 
 
 Yet contemplative souls must not be re- 
 quired to meditate in the same way as others 
 on the points heard read. Each thing in its 
 place. They doubtless need to be instructed 
 in the duties of the religious life and conse- 
 quently should listen to public instruction 
 humbly, attentively and with a sincere desire 
 to learn. But once the points are finished, 
 God reserves it to Himself to speak to the 
 contemplative soul without the medium of a 
 human voice. Let the Creator, then, be 
 allowed to treat with the creature, the Father 
 with His son, the Spouse with His betrothed. 
 
 In conclusion, the general retreat has indis- 
 putable advantages for Religious raised to 
 Contemplation. It is best, therefore, for 
 them not to exempt themselves from it, unless 
 for grave reasons, such as the duties of their 
 
 1 Vie, par le P. C6pari, ch. 24. 
 
284 PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER 
 
 office, an attraction so powerful that it appears 
 clearly the expression of the Divine Will, etc. 
 The soul should then follow the path pointed 
 out and make a private retreat. 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Affective prayer and supernatural recollection, difference 
 
 between 23 
 
 special grace of prayer, part played by supernatural 
 
 recollection in 25 
 
 Angelic speech, imperfect contemplation the beginning of. . . 65 
 
 Angels, perfect contemplation makes one the rival of 65 
 
 Beatitude, contemplation the beginning of everlasting 50 
 
 Brotherly love, God's love won by 161 
 
 By experience the soul through contemplation learns to know 
 
 God 35 
 
 Characteristic of contemplation, first 26 
 
 Characteristics of prayer of quiet 68 
 
 — of simple union 76 
 
 Christian perfection, contemplation a powerful means of 
 
 attaining 241 
 
 — • — contemplation not the only means of attaining 235 
 
 three degrees of 187 
 
 Comparing the soul's smallness with God's infinite great- 
 ness 119 
 
 Conclusions regarding teaching and preaching 191 
 
 Conduct of a soul raised to contemplation when making a 
 
 private retreat 274 
 
 Consummate union, nothing exceeds the perfection ob- 
 tained in 112 
 
 Consummated union and contemplation, difference between. 94 
 
 or spiritual marriage 94 
 
 285 
 
286 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Contemplation, active mental prayer does not always lead 
 
 to infused 255 
 
 — a form of mental prayer 15 
 
 — and eternal happiness, different characteristics of ...... . 52 
 
 — and consummated union, difference between 94 
 
 — and meditation, St. Frances of Sales' comparison of 43 
 
 — a powerful means of attaining Christian perfection 241 
 
 — a simple and prolonged gaze upon God 33 
 
 — a simple intuition of truth. 31 
 
 — definition of 55, 58 
 
 — difference between infused and active 58 
 
 — distinguished from supernatural recollection 49 
 
 — do all souls called to, reach its highest point? 247 
 
 — end God has in view in raising a soul to perfect 187 
 
 — extraordinary prayer called, because truth is known by 
 
 intuition 15 
 
 — faith a heritage to souls called to 27 
 
 — fifth characteristic of 46 
 
 — first characteristic of 26 
 
 — fourth characteristic of 42 
 
 — grace of, a foregift from Divine Goodness 127 
 
 — knowledge of God important in study of 36 
 
 — knowledge of God in 53 
 
 — love a simple and prolonged act in 53 
 
 — not the only means of attaining Christian perfection .... 235 
 
 — perfect and imperfect 62 
 
 — preeminence of, over meditation 32 
 
 — requires a special vocation 242 
 
 — second characteristic of 31 
 
 — secret for making rapid progress in 163 
 
 — signs by which it may be known a soul is called to 252 
 
 — sixth characteristic of 50 
 
 — soul called to, must study and practice the solid virtues. 157 
 
 — suspension of the powers a characteristic of 49 
 
 — the beginning of eternal beatitude 266 
 
 — the beginning of everlasting beatitude 50 
 
 — the soul's powers completely suspended in perfect 62 
 
INDEX 287 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Contemplation, the soul's powers not completely suspended 
 
 in imperfect 62 
 
 — third characteristic of 35 
 
 — two degrees of perfect 76 
 
 — way to the great ecstacies of 164 
 
 — why it is not always attained 268 
 
 Contemplative soul must labor to acquire humility 158 
 
 during retreat, should be purified from the stains of 
 
 sin 275 
 
 must avoid self-complacencies 171 
 
 — vocation, four conditions necessary for a 257 
 
 Contemplatives, a degree God grants to privileged souls. . . 27 
 
 Court of Heaven, God's omnipotence in 86 
 
 Creator, soul consumed with love in an undefined view of 
 
 its 21 
 
 Definition of contemplation 55 
 
 Devil, temptations of the, last for years 132 
 
 Difference between ecstatic union and simple union 82 
 
 Divine Goodness, grace of contemplation a foregift from. . . 127 
 
 — vision not always continuous in ecstacy 85 
 
 Dryness in ecstatic union, souls not exempt from 9.1 
 
 Duration of time Of imperfect contemplation 67 
 
 — ■ — of perfect contemplation 67 
 
 Earthly purgatory, another form of 143 
 
 Ecstacy, divine vision not always continuous in 85 
 
 — exposed to illusions 89 
 
 — true and false, time of 90 
 
 Ecstatic union and simple union 76 
 
 and simple union, difference between 82 
 
 souls not exempt from dryness in . . 91 
 
 Eternal beatitude, contemplation the beginning of 266 
 
 joy of 54 
 
 — _ — love in 53 
 
 peace of * 54 
 
 vision of , , t , , ,,,,,,, f , , 53 
 
288 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Eternal happiness and contemplation, different character- 
 istics of 52 
 
 Extraordinary and ordinary prayer 13 
 
 — graces, to what extent may they be desired? 261 
 
 — ■ prayer called contemplation, because truth is known by 
 
 intuition 15 
 
 made by a special grace which God grants to few. ... 13 
 
 supernatural recollection a part of 18 
 
 — states, reading books about, not permitted to all pious 
 
 souls 270 
 
 Faith a heritage to souls called to contemplation 27 
 
 — elevation of, due to the gift of wisdom 26 
 
 — perfected in wisdom 29 
 
 — St. John's description of 28 
 
 Fervor of devotion, reason must regulate 74 
 
 First degree of imperfect contemplation 68 
 
 Five spiritual senses, St. Teresa describes 38 
 
 God allows the devil to tempt souls who have received con- 
 templation, reasons why. . , 131 
 
 — a simple and loving gaze upon 55 
 
 — contemplation a simple and prolonged gaze upon 33 
 
 — discloses His sovereign greatness in an extraordinary way. 141 
 
 — feeling of having been abandoned by 117 
 
 — knowledge of, important in study of contemplation 36 
 
 — knowledge of, in contemplation 53 
 
 — St. Teresa teaches how the 1 will is suspended and sunk 
 
 in 47 
 
 — the soul by experience through contemplation learns to 
 
 know 35 
 
 — the soul learns to love 56 
 
 — to enjoy favors from, obedience must be joined to 
 
 humility 160 
 
 God's abandonment, suffering caused by, how felt 122 
 
 — five ways of speaking supernaturally to souls 217 
 
 — infinite greatness, comparing the soul's smallness with 119 
 
INDEX 289 
 
 PAGE 
 
 God's love won by brotherly love 161 
 
 — omnipotence in the court of Heaven 86 
 
 — works the object of infused contemplation 107 
 
 Grace of supernatural recollection 24 
 
 Holy Eucharist, souls called to contemplation must have a 
 
 special devotion to 181 
 
 Humility, contemplative soul must labor to acquire 158 
 
 Illusions, ecstasy exposed to 89 
 
 — St. Ignatius' rule for avoiding 226 
 
 Imperfect contemplation, duration of time of 67 
 
 first degree of 68 
 
 second degree of 73 
 
 the beginning of angelic speech 65 
 
 the soul's powers not completely suspended in 62 
 
 Infused contemplation, God's works the object of 107 
 
 St. Ignatius' spiritual exercises a preparation for 256 
 
 " Interior pain," various names for 124 
 
 Jesus Christ crucified, souls called to contemplation must 
 
 seek intimate union with 172 
 
 Joy of eternal beatitude 54 
 
 Knowledge gained by the spiritual senses never replaces 
 
 faith ....'. 41 
 
 Love a simple and prolonged act in contemplation 53 
 
 — in eternal beatitude 53 
 
 — spiritual intoxication a fervent devotion of 73 
 
 Martyrdom endured by St. Teresa 30 
 
 Meditation and contemplation, St. Teresa explains 42 
 
 — ordinary prayer called, because truth is sought by reason- 
 
 ing and reflection 15 
 
 — preeminence of contemplation over 32 
 
290 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mental prayer, active, does not always lead to infused con- 
 templation 255 
 
 contemplation a form of 15 
 
 two kinds of 13 
 
 Ordinary and extraordinary prayer 13 
 
 — prayer, called meditation, because truth is sought by 
 
 reasoning and reflection 15 
 
 ■ made by the help of grace which God refuses to none 13 
 
 Our Lord's life and the words of Scripture, learning to know no 
 
 Peace of eternal beatitude 54 
 
 Perfect and imperfect contemplation 62 
 
 — contemplation, duration of time of 67 
 
 makes one the rival of angels 65 
 
 second degree of 82 
 
 — ■ — the soul's powers completely suspended in 62 
 
 two degrees of 76 
 
 Powers, suspension of the, a characteristic of contemplation. 49 
 Prayer, affective, special grace of prayer, part played by 
 
 supernatural recollection in 25 
 
 — difference in liberty of soul's powers 60 
 
 — difference of light in intellect and warmth in will 59 
 
 — difference of preparation in 60 
 
 — difference of simplicity in 59 
 
 — difference of work in 58 
 
 — extraordinary, made by a special grace which God grants 
 
 to few 13 
 
 — of quiet 68 
 
 characteristics of 68 
 
 St. Frances de Chantal's remarks about 70 
 
 — ordinary and extraordinary 13 
 
 made by the help of grace which God refuses to none. 13 
 
 — principle which governs 21 
 
 — St. Teresa's account of her state of 37 
 
 — supernatural recollection the usual method of 80 
 
 — two kinds of mental 13 
 
INDEX 291 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Prayers, saints who have made the church illustrious with 
 
 their 175 
 
 Principle which governs prayer 21 
 
 Purgatory, holy souls in, desire perfect union with God. . . 146 
 
 — St. Catherine of Gdnba describes her earthly 145 
 
 Reason must regulate the fervor of devotion 74 
 
 Religious raised to contemplation, share taken in general 
 
 retreat 281 
 
 Retreat, conduct of a soul raised to contemplation when 
 
 making a private 274 
 
 — contemplative souls during, should be purified from the 
 
 stains of sin 275 
 
 — share taken in general, religious raised to contemplation. 281 
 
 Saints who have made the church illustrious by their 
 
 prayers 175 
 
 Second degree of perfect contemplation 82 
 
 Simple union and ecstatic union 76 
 
 — difference between 82 
 
 — — characteristics of 76 
 
 or spiritual betrothal 82 
 
 Sins, penetrating sight of one's 117 
 
 Soul consumed with love in an undefined view of its Creator. 2 1 
 
 — in purgatory, suffering of a holy 144 
 
 — powers of the, suspended by admiration and love 46 
 
 — the, enjoys a beginning of eternal beatitude 57 
 
 — the, enjoys profound peace 57 
 
 — the, learns to love God 56 
 
 — the, suspended by the admiration and love it feels 56 
 
 — the, through contemplation learns to know God by 
 
 experience 35 
 
 Soul's advancement, spiritual exercises the best for 236 
 
 " Soul's Dark Night," a few words on the 148 
 
 Souls called to contemplation must have a special devotion 
 
 to the Holy Eucharist 181 
 
292 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Souls called to contemplation must seek intimate union 
 
 with Jesus Christ crucified 172 
 
 must shun attachments to creatures 167 
 
 — reach Heaven after purification in purgatory 139 
 
 — tormented by temptation must trust in Divine Provi- 
 
 dence 138 
 
 Spiritual aridity 127 
 
 — betrothal or simple union 82 
 
 — dryness, times of 81 
 
 — exercises the best for soul's advancement 236 
 
 — food, depriving the soul of 21 
 
 — intoxication 68, 73 
 
 a fervent devotion of love 73 
 
 — marriage or consummated union 94 
 
 state of 100 
 
 — senses, description of the, by St. John of the Cross 38 
 
 difference between ordinary and extraordinary use of. 41 
 
 Spiritual senses, knowledge gained by, never replaces faith. 41 
 
 St. Catherine of Genoa describes her earthly purgatory. ... 145 
 
 St. Frances de Chantal's remarks about prayer of quiet ... 70 
 St. Francis of Sales' comparison of contemplation and 
 
 meditation 43 
 
 St. Ignatius' rule for avoiding illusions 226 
 
 — spiritual exercises a preparation for infused contempla- 
 
 tion 256 
 
 St. John of the Cross, description of the spiritual senses by 38 
 
 St. John's description of faith 28 
 
 St. Teresa describes the five spiritual senses 38 
 
 — explains meditation and contemplation. 42 
 
 — martyrdom endured by 30 
 
 — teaches how the will is suspended and sunk in God 47 
 
 St. Teresa's account of her state of prayer 37 
 
 — advice to her religious 166 
 
 Suffering of a holy soul in purgatory 144 
 
 Supernatural graces, doubting the truth of 136 
 
 — recollection and affective prayer, difference between 23 
 
 a part of extraordinary prayer 18 
 
INDEX 293 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Supernatural graces, contemplation distinguished from 49 
 
 — grace of affective prayer, acts of the affections essence 
 
 of 24 
 
 in affective prayer, special grace of prayer, part 
 
 played by 25 
 
 the usual method of prayer 80 
 
 — visions and speech 197 
 
 precautions against placing faith in 200 
 
 three classes of w 198 
 
 Teaching and preaching, conclusions regarding 191 
 
 Temptations of the devil 131 
 
 last for years 132 
 
 Time of true and false ecstasy 90 
 
 Times of spiritual dryness 81 
 
 Vision of eternal beatitude 53 
 
 Visions and revelations, renowned 210 
 
 — conditions for accepting 211 
 
 — God's use of 210 
 
 Wisdom, elevation of faith due to the gift of 26 
 
 — faith perfected in 29 
 
 Wounds caused by love 101 
 
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