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      EXCELLENCE OF MENTAL PRAYER

      that they regard themselves as unworthy of holding intimate converse with God. Poor mortals that we are, we can, in spite of our misery, aspire to this marvellous grace. St. Paul says in his Epistle of the Galatians: God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: 'Abba, Father!' "¹

      The same Apostle in his Epistle to the Romans writes: ''You have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: 'Abba, Father!'"² Now children may talk to their father simply and unconstrainedly.

      Hence, nothing that the Fathers of the Church have said in their emphatic praise of prayer can astonish us.

      "No practice is of greater importance, nothing we prize of more value in this life than prayer," writes St. Gregory of Nyssa.³ ''Think what happiness is granted to you, what glory is attached to the prayer in which we talk with God, in which we hold intercourse with Jesus Christ," says St. John Chrysostom.* One could not wish for grander praise, nor praise which would show more clearly the excellence of prayer.

       1 Galat. 4: 6. ² Rom. 8: 15.

       2 De orat, domin. 4 De orando Deo, l. 2.

      PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER

      CHAPTER II

       FIRST AND SECOND ADVANTAGES OF PRAYER: IT ENSURES OUR SALVATION AND ENRICHES US WITH NUMEROUS MERITS

      IT is an article of faith that prayer prop- erly so called, or petition, made with the requisite conditions, obtains, without fail, salvation, for Our Lord has said: Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you; for everyone that asketh receiveth."¹ And again: Amen, Amen, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you."

      The required conditions are: Humility, confidence, and perseverance.

      These three conditions may be fulfilled in vocal prayer, which is the ordinary means of salvation, but they are much more easily realized in meditation. In this, indeed, while reviewing the events of his life in God's presence and in bitterness of soul, the Christian vividly feels his own weak-

       ¹ Matth. 7: 7 ² John 16: 23.

      EXCELLENCE OF MENTAL PRAYER

      ness, and in profound humility cries: " Lord, Lord, hear my voice! Let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication."¹

      Again, while meditating on Our Lord's words: Ask and you shall receive; Amen, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you," the Christian makes an act of lively faith, in relying on the promise that God has made of giving us Heaven through the merits of Jesus Christ, and from this promise arises a firm hope of being heard in spite of natural fears, the attacks of the devil, and the allurements of the world.

      Finally, while meditating under God's very eye and silencing all worldly pre- occupations, the Christian realizes that one thing alone is necessary, eternal salvation. Then, a heaven-sent light impresses upon him the truth of our Divine Master's maxim: "What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?"²

      And so, strengthened by these thoughts, he perseveres in prayer in spite of fear, listlessness or sadness, and in persevering he is saved.

       ¹ Ps. 129: 1. ² Matth. 16: 26.

      PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER

      With regard to merit, prayer is a kind of holocaust by which he who prays offers himself without reserve as a victim to the divine Majesty.

      In prayer an offering is made to God of the imagination, by restraining it from spreading itself on things profane; of the memory and intellect, by using them solely for what concerns God and His glory: of the will, by allowing it to interest itself only in the praise and service of God. Not even the senses and the members of the body are without their immolation. The eyes are consecrated to Him by keeping them mod- estly lowered; the ears, by closing them to all external sounds; the whole body, by keeping it in a respectful posture.

      Prayer, then, is not a partial, but a total sacrifice, and is therefore meritorious in the extreme, especially in moments of dryness of spirit, when God hides Himself and when nature feels strongly impelled towards creatures.

      In the second place, meditation is a source of merit on account of the interior acts which it causes us to make. These acts, indeed, are more perfect in themselves than exterior

       EXCELLENCE OF MENTAL PRAYER

      good works, in accordance with Our Lord's words: God is a spirit and they that adore Him, must adore Him in spirit and in truth."¹ Such acts include those of faith, hope, charity, adoration, praise, thanksgiving, petition and others, of which we shall treat at length later If our life is not in conformity with the acts made during prayer, truly we ought to fear that they are but imperfect, accord- ing to the saying of our Divine Master: By their fruits you shall know them."² What can we conclude from these words except that the most meritorious acts may be only partially profitable if they are made with indifference? In no instance, then, is prayer to be blamed, but the defective dispositions of those who pray.

      Finally, prayer gains us further merit, since exterior actions draw their greatest value from its exercise. In reality it is prayer which marks each of these exterior works with a deep and precious seal; that of divine love.

      And how is this? The morning's prayer enkindles in our heart the fire of this love, and this fire remains smouldering, as it were,

       ¹ John 4: 24. ² Matth. 7: 16.

      PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER

      throughout the day. But from a smoulder- ing fire it is easy to cause sparks to rise; so when a fervent prayer has been made in the morning, the soul finds no difficulty in repeating every hour, every half-hour, or even more frequently, fervent acts of the love of God, the repetition of these acts with the most divine and therefore meritorious intention, consecrates our daily actions to the glory of God, and a single day thus becomes more meritorious than a whole month without prayer.

      EXCELLENCE OF MENTAL PRAYER

      CHAPTER III

      THIRD ADVANTAGE OF PRAYER:

      It leads to Christian perfection

      CHRISTIAN perfection is nothing else but a union of love with God; in other words, it is the unitive life.

      In its essence, it consists in the transforma- tion of our will into the divine will, so that we no longer wish for anything but what God wishes, and because He wishes it, in- finitely worthy as He is in Himself of being loved. In order to arrive at this state, the soul must pass through various stages, which we will examine in turn.

      First, the soul must not only be purified from deliberate sin, but must also change its irregular inclinations, as far, at least, as human weakness will allow. Indeed, if an earthly prince refuses to enter the unclean hovel of a subject, it is evident that God, the Sovereign Lord of all things, could not visit a soul in order to contract with it the union of love, unless it were previously cleansed of its stains.

      The process of cleansing is a great one

      PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER

      and no one can make it successful without the help of prayer. The first cleansing con- sists in never again committing a deliberate venial sin. Now, that is impossible to one who is aided only by that grace which God refuses to none. A powerful grace is required, which God grants only to fervent petition, the peculiar characteristic of prayer.

      When the soul has

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