Mental prayer (4) - Method of making it

Mental Prayer consists of three parts:

1. The Preparation;
2. The Meditation proper;\

3. The Conclusion.

The Preparation.

Begin by disposing your mind and your body to enter into pious recollection.

Leave outside the door of the place where you are going to converse with God all extraneous or distracting thoughts, saying with St. Bernard: "O my thoughts, wait here! After prayer we shall treat on other matters." Be careful not to allow the mind to wander where it wishes.

The posture of the body most suitable for prayer is kneeling, but if this posture becomes so irksome as to cause distractions, we may, as St. John of the Cross tells us, make our Meditation modestly sitting down.

In the Preparation there should be three Acts:

1. An Act of Faith in the presence of God;
2. An Act of Humility and Contrition for sin;\

3. An Act of Petition for light.

Be careful to make the Act of Faith in the presence of God well, for a lively remembrance of the Divine Presence contributes greatly to remove distractions. When a person is distracted in Meditation there is reason to think that he has not made a lively Act of Faith at the beginning. The three Acts should be made with fervour and should be short that we may pass immediately to the Meditation.

The Meditation Proper

When Mental Prayer is made in common, as in a Community of Religious, one person reads for the rest the subject of the Meditation and divides it into two parts. The first point is read at the beginning after the Prayers are said and the Preparatory Acts are made. The second point is read towards the middle of the half hour. One should read in a loud tone of voice, and slowly, so as to be well understood.

When you make Meditation in private you may always use a book, and stop when you find yourself most touched. St. Francis de Sales says that in this we should be as the bees that stop on a flower as long as they find any honey in it, and then pass to another. We should stop at those passages in which the soul finds nourishment. St. Teresa used a book for seventeen years in this way. She would first read a little, then meditate for a short while on what she had read, in imitation of the dove that first drinks and then raises its eyes to heaven.

It should be remembered that the fruit of Mental Prayer does not consist so much in meditating, as in making affections, petitions and resolutions.

1. Affections — When you reflect on the point of the Meditation just read, and feel any pious sentiment, raise your heart to God and offer Him an Act of humility, of confidence, love, sorrow, gratitude, resignation, thanksgiving, and so on. The Acts of Love and Contrition are the golden chain that binds the soul to God. An Act of perfect Charity is sufficient for the remission of all our sins. And among the Acts of Love towards God there is none more perfect than the taking delight in the infinite joy of God.

2. Petitions — It is very profitable in Mental Prayer, and perhaps more useful than any other Act, to repeat petitions to God, asking with humility and confidence His graces — His light, the strength we need to do His holy Will and to pray always, and especially the grace of Perseverance and His Holy Love.

The Ven. Paul Segneri says that until he studied Theology, he used to employ himself during the time of Mental Prayer making Reflections and Affections, but, "God afterwards opened my eyes," he says, "and thenceforward I endeavoured to employ myself in Petitions; and if there is any good in me I ascribe it all to this exercise of recommending myself to God." Do you likewise. Ask of God His graces in the Name of Jesus Christ and you will obtain whatever you desire.

3. Resolutions — It is necessary to make a particular resolution in the Meditation. As, for example, to avoid some particular sin, or some defect into which you have more frequently fallen; to practise some particular virtue, such as to suffer the annoyance you receive from another person, to obey more exactly a certain superior, to perform some particular act of mortification. The same resolutions have to be made several times until we find we have got rid of the defect or acquired the virtue. Afterwards do not fail to reduce to practice the resolutions you have made, as soon as the occasion is presented.

You would also do well to renew your Vows, or any particular engagement you have made with God. This renewal is most pleasing to God, and it multiplies the merit of the good work and draws down upon ourselves new help to persevere and grow in grace.

The Conclusion

The Conclusion consists of three acts:

1. Thanking God for the lights received, etc.;
2. Making a firm purpose to keep our resolutions;\

3. Asking God, for the sake of Jesus and Mary, to give us the grace to be faithful to our resolutions.

Be careful never to omit, at the end of Meditation, to recommend to God the souls in Purgatory, and all poor sinners. St. John Chrysostom says nothing more clearly shows our love for Jesus Christ than our zeal in recommending our neighbours to Him.

A WORD ABOUT DISTRACTIONS AND DRYNESS IN PRAYER.

1. Distractions. Of these we must not take much account. It is enough to drive them away when they come. And besides, even the Saints suffered involuntary distractions. But they did not, on this account, leave off Meditation; and so also must we act. St. Francis of Sales says that if in Meditation we did nothing but drive away, or seek to drive away, distractions, our Meditation would be of great profit.

2. As for Dryness of Spirit, the greatest pain of souls in Meditation is to find themselves sometimes without a feeling of devotion, weary of Prayer, and without any sensible desire of loving God. And with this is often joined the fear of being in the wrath of God through their sins, on account of which the Lord has abandoned them; and being in this gloomy darkness they know not any way of escaping from it, for it seems to them that every way is closed against them. Let the devout soul, then, continue steadfast in Meditation, and not leave off as the devil will suggest. At such a time let it unite its desolation to that which Jesus Christ suffered on the Cross. Let it repeat: My Jesus, mercy! Lord, have mercy on me! Have pity on me! Leave me not, O Jesus! Pray, and doubt not that God will hear you and grant your petitions.