Contrary to what is taught by some, it is important for the one who practices prayer to have some idea of where he is on the spiritual ladder. That is why St Teresa and St John of the Cross spent so much time writing spiritual guides for those who practiced prayer under their guidance. Such knowledge is important to oneself, and to one's director, if one has one, because it indicates the type of prayer that is appropriate for one to practice at a particular level, as well as what one may expect as to the nature of one's prayer at that level. If, for example, one is unaware that the night of sense follows closely upon the initiation of contemplative prayer, then one will not understand why one's prayer has suddenly changed from sweetness to aridity at the divine infusion. Father Jordan Aumann has clearly defined the grades of prayer for us:

Christian Perfection increases in relation to the increase in intensity of the supernatural virtue of "Charity." We reach perfection in the "Transforming Union" when we "Love" God in line with the First Commandment, i.e., "with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole strength, and our whole mind." The beginning levels of Christian Perfection, St Teresa's first threee mansions, is comprised of the practice of vocal and meditative prayer, along with asceticism and practive of the virtues,. The elimination of serious sin in one's life, and generosity in the practice of virtue, prepares one for the reception of the gift of contemplative prayer. The beginning of the gift of contemplative prayer, in which we change from an active to a more passive-receptive prayer mode, is identified by the presence of "the Signs" mentioned by St John of the Cross.(see Table of Contents).

Up ill now, the spiritual vessel has moved forward by our own efforts in rowing it, assisted by grace. When contemplative prayer begins, the wind of the Holy Spirit fills the sails of our vessel. Now, under Holy Spirit initiative, charity is supernaturally intensified through actuation of the Gifts of Wisdom and Understanding. Wisdom and charity powerfully interact and intensify one another. Now the boat moves forward with supernatural power connected with contemplative prayer. We surrender our active natural prayer efforts in favor of a quiet receptivity, and allow the Divine Wind to supernaturally sail the boat forward and transform us in charity.

And this transformation in Charity, or Christian Perfection, must be built on a life filled with the practice of mental prayer,(mentally attending to our loving relationship with God in every form of prayer) no matter what one's vocation, in or out of the world, and no matter what other religious practices one performs. For mental prayer is building this intimate relationship with God, rather than with other things. And nothing makes up for mental prayer, or time attentively spent thinking about and relating to the Beloved, in the spiritual life. And, in like manner, "apophatic contemplation," as taught by St John of the Cross, and St Teresa of Avila, is the foundation upon which the contemplative life must be built. It is the cornerstone, and once in place, all other forms of prayer, including cataphatic contemplation, find their place in the fullness of Catholic spirituality.

And therefore, when one is receiving "the Signs" indicated by St John of the Cross, that indicate that one should leave meditation, and move into imageless "unknowing," one should do just that. For the signs are an indication of God's actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, emphasizing Wisdom and Understanding, producing the beginning of infused contemplation in the soul. Therefore, one's cooperation with this infusion of grace in unknowing is properly called "infused unknowing" since the Holy Spirit action precipitates it, even as we meritoriously surrender to it.

Without the humble surrender of oneself in response to God's proximate call(the signs) to apophatic, contemplative spiritual transformation, one's progress toward perfection will be greatly hindered. And the experience of supernatural infusions of the gift of understanding, or cataphatic contemplation, in connecton with the Rosary, spiritual reading or writing, meditation on God's Beauty in creation, or other religious practices outside the time of apophatic contemplation, is normally greatly dependent on progress in Charity and the growth of the contemplative gifts through the cornerstone of the spiritual life, the practice of apophatic contemplative prayer.

CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER METHOD

NIGHT OF SENSE (First stage of contemplative prayer)

St John outlines how one should proceed during the "Night of Sense" which coincides with the beginning of obscure contemplation indicated by the "Signs" that one is being proximately called. It is sometimes helpful in contemplation to quietly and slowly repeat the Name of Jesus to oneself. Then when the inner absorption becomes manifest, one "let's go" of this inner prayer and surrenders completely to the Divine Spirit. If one becomes distracted again, one resumes the slow repetition of the Name of Jesus until one experiences the resumption of the contemplative quiet.

ST JOHN OF THE CROSS INSTRUCTS:

"The way in which they are to conduct themselves in this night of sense is to devote themselves not at all to reasoning and meditation, since this is not the time for it, but to allow the soul to remain in peace and quietness, although it may seem clear to them that they are doing nothing and are wasting their time, and although it may appear to them that it is because of their weakness that they have no desire in that state to think of anything. The truth is that they will be doing quite sufficient if they have patience and persevere in prayer without making any effort.

"What they must do is merely to leave the soul free and disencumbered and at rest from all knowledge and thought, troubling not themselves, in that state, about what they shall think or meditate upon, but contenting themselves with merely a peaceful and loving attentiveness toward God, and in being without anxiety, without the ability and without desired to have experience of Him or to perceive Him. For all these yearnings disquiet and distract the soul from the peaceful quiet and sweet ease of contemplation which is here granted to it."

"And although further scruples may come to them--that they are wasting their time, and that it would be well for them to do something else, because they can neither do nor think anything in prayer--let them suffer these scruples and remain in peace, as there is no question save of their being at ease and having freedom of spirit. For if such a soul should desire to make any effort of its own with its interior faculties, this means that it will hinder and lose the blessings which, by means of that peace and ease of the soul, God is instilling into it and impressing upon it. It is just as if some painter were painting or dyeing a face; if the sitter were to move because he desired to do something, he would prevent the painter from accomplishing anything and would disturb him in what he was doing. And thus, when the soul desires to remain in inward ease and peace, any operation and affection or attentions wherein it may then seek to indulge[74] will distract it and disquiet it and make it conscious of aridity and emptiness of sense. For the more a soul endeavours to find support in affection and knowledge, the more will it feel the lack of these, which cannot now be supplied to it upon that road."

"Wherefore it behoves such a soul to pay no heed if the operations of its faculties become lost to it; it is rather to desire that this should happen quickly. For, by not hindering the operation of infused contemplation that God is bestowing upon it, it can receive this with more peaceful abundance, and cause its spirit to be enkindled and to burn with the love which this dark and secret contemplation brings with it and sets firmly in the soul. For contemplation is naught else than a secret, peaceful and loving infusion from God, which, if it be permitted, enkindles the soul with the spirit of love."(notice that this contemplation, though obscure and secret to the intellect's clear understanding, is nonetheless "manifest" to the individual contemplative through the delight and experience of the enkindling of love)(St John of the Cross, "Dark Night of the Soul")

And such apophatic contemplative prayer should become the cornerstone of each contemplative's day. However, during the rest of the day, when the active intellect is back in operation, the contemplative must stay recollected in order to " avoid the occasions of sin." One of the best ways to do that is through the Power of the Holy Name in the Jesus Prayer. This practice fulfills God's command that we "pray always," and is equivalent to calling on God to watch over, and stay with us from moment to moment, in all our activities. Throughout the day, whatever one is doing, one engages in silent repetition of the Jesus Prayer, i.e., "Jesus have Mercy," which will keep Jesus present to the soul along with an "interior image." The images leading to sin can gain no hold on one who is ever in the presence of the Image of Jesus. And this Image helps the natural man to stay focused on the Supernatural, and conveys our love to the Exemplar of the Image, the Person of God, the Divine Word, Jesus Christ, Who Lives in the Bosom of the Father, in the Love of the Holy Spirit.

For when one dwells on an object or image, one "energizes" one's physical, emotional, and mental reaction to it, positive or negative. This is the way the human organism initiates preparation for action. For example, Television commercials bring us a kaleidoscope of forms, colors, and seductive images which energize us to buy and possess the objects being sold. And in order to energize us, these objects come associated with, and wrapped in the most powerful human energizers, i.e., seductive packages connected with sex, food, power, and prestige. For like Pavlov's dog, we tend to pay attention, and "salivate" at the image being peddled to us, once it is associated with sex, prestige, and so on. And the flagrant use of seductive images connected with the sex-act, or being "sexy," become the most powerful, and therefore, the most frequently used images and energizers in movies, televsion, magazines, and billboards. And all these secular, worldly images keep us in a constant state of arousal, replacing the Power of God with the "lust" of the world. For this reason we must practice "custody of the eyes," and refuse admission to images which incline us toward sin.

St John of the Cross, in providing practical principles to guide those intereseted in perfection, points out the following:.."When one's mind dwells on anything, it is no longer dwelling on God." So during our busy day working in the world, we are dwelling on many things, a myriad of objects and activities other than God. And these images desensitize and deaden our spirits to God's Presence. And since we can't escape our duties and responsibilities, we must do the next best thing. If we are serious about perfection, we will stay "recollected" to the extent that we can, during all our activities throughout the day. And the easiest way to do this is by keeping an interior image of Jesus in the center of our consciousness, at all times, through repetition of the Jesus Prayer. Instead of lust, let Jesus rule our consciousness.

The author of "The Way of the Pilgrim," relates the effects the Jesus Prayer had on his life:

"When I prayed in my heart, everything around me seemed delightful and marvelous. The trees, the grass, the birds, the air, the light seemed to be telling me that they existed for man's sake, that they witnessed to the love of God for man, that all things prayed to God and sang his praise. Again I started off on my wanderings. But now I did not walk along as before, filled with care. The invocation of the Name of Jesus gladdened my way. Everybody was kind to me. If anyone harms me I have only to think, 'How sweet is the Prayer of Jesus!' and the injury and the anger alike pass away and I forget it all."

Such "Recollection," and the remembrance of God, was the practice through which Brother Lawrence was ever in the "the Presence of God," and knew constant joy, very similar to that described by the pilgrim in The Way of the Pilgrim, whether he was in or out of prayer. It was the same prayer practice described by Thomas a Kempis in The Imitation of Christ. And it was the spiritual power that illumined the preaching of St Bernard, St Dominic, or the Passionist and Ignatian fathers. Their retreats certainly gained no power from " invisible emptiness," or "the Ethereal, Divine Cosmic One." They found the power to transform the world through the Human Incarnation of the Divine Word, the Godman, Jesus Christ. And those who regularly pray the Rosary know this very well..

In the beginning of this practice, the Prayer is in the external faculties only, and one prays it with some difficulty. However, over time, the prayer becomes automatic, and can become Supernatural Prayer, or Cataphatic Contemplation, when God chooses to actuate the Gifts of the Holy Spirit already present in each believers soul. And it is guaranteed to transform your life if you stick with it. And by that I mean it has the power to gradually subdue loneliness, and to replace it with the "Presence of Jesus," who will eventually, at the level of "union," become your "Constant Companion." Who kept Richard Rolle company for all the years of his isolation? What about Mother Julian? And what about St Anthony of the Desert? What about the many unnamed others, who, even today, find this Divine Companionship through Recollection and living in the Presence of God.

Sooner or later we're going to have to decide whether or not we're going to get serious about following Christ"s admonition to us all: "Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect!" That's what the spiritual life and sanctity are all about. You either move forward in the spiritual life, or you go backwards, until you fall out the bottom, and end up with no Faith and no Hope. So if you havn't got the courage to get started, you'll never get to the finish line. And the regular repetition of the Jesus Prayer is a good way to begin. And if someone says there's nothing "magic" about the Name of Jesus, smile and tell them they're right. And thank them for pointing out that God is much more powerful than magic! Then tell them to read the Catholic Catechism, St Paul, the Catholic Encyclopedia, and Pope John Paul II, in regard to the Divine Power available to us when we call upon the Holy Name of Jesus!

For it should be remembered, as St Teresa said, life is long, and there is time for everything in one's contemplative spirituality. When one is not experiencing supernatural contemplation, and outside the time of "actual apophatic contemplative prayer," the contemplative will participate in the liturgy, vocal prayer such as the Rosary, and meditation on the Scruptures, the doctrine of the Church, spiritual reading, and the Life of Jesus Christ. The extent to which a contemplative is able to benefit from these latter activities may vary according to the individual case, the particular prayer activity, and the stage of contemplative prayer.

ST JOHN OF THE CROSS(method for cornerstone of contemplative life: apophatic prayer):

"The soul, then, should advert that God is the principal agent in this matter. He acts as guide of the blind, leading it by the hand to the place it knows not how to reach (to supernatural things of which neither its intellect nor will nor memory can know the nature). It should use all its principal care in watching so as not to place any obstacle in the way of God, its guide on this road ordained for it by him according to the perfection of his law and of the faith, as we said.

"It can cause this obstacle by allowing itself to be led by another blind guide. There are three blind guides who can draw it off the road: the spiritual director, the devil, and the soul itself. So the soul may understand how this happens, we will briefly discuss each of these blind guides.

"As regards the first, it is very important that individuals, desiring to advance in recollection and perfection, take care into whose hands they entrust themselves, for the disciple will become like the master, and as is the father so will be the son. Let them realize that for this journey, especially its most sublime parts (and even for the intermediate parts), they will hardly find a guide accomplished as to all their needs, for besides being learned and discreet, a director should have experience. Although the foundation for guiding a soul to spirit is knowledge and discretion, directors will not succeed in leading the soul onward in it when God bestows it, nor will they even understand it if they have no experience of what true and pure spirit is.

"As a result, many spiritual masters cause great harm to a number of souls; not understanding the ways and properties of the spirit, they ordinarily make souls lose the unction of these delicate ointments with which the Holy Spirit anoints and prepares them for himself, and they instruct them in other inferior ways, serviceable only to beginners, which they themselves have used or read of somewhere. Knowing no more than what pertains to beginners - and please God they would even know this much - they do not wish to permit souls to pass beyond these beginnings and these discursive and imaginative ways (even though God may desire to lead them on). Thus they do not let them go beyond their natural capacity, but through their natural capacity souls cannot make much progress.

"For a better understanding of this beginner's stage, it should be known that the practice of beginners is to meditate and make acts and discursive reflection with the imagination. Individuals in this state should be given matter for meditation and discursive reflection, and they should by themselves make interior acts and profit in spiritual things from the delight and satisfaction of the senses. For by being fed with the relish of spiritual things, the appetite is torn away from sensual things and weakened in regard to the things of the world.

"But when the appetite has been fed somewhat and has become in a certain fashion accustomed to spiritual things and acquired some fortitude and constancy, God begins to wean the soul, as they say, and place it in the state of contemplation. This occurs in some persons after a very short time, especially with religious; in denying the things of the world more quickly, they accommodate their senses and appetites to God and pass on to the spirit in their activity, God thus working in them. This happens when the soul's discursive acts and meditations cease, as well as its initial sensible satisfaction and fervor, and it is unable to practice discursive meditation as before or find any support for the senses. The sensory part is left in dryness because its riches are transferred to the spirit, which does not pertain to the senses.

"Since the soul cannot function naturally except by means of the senses, it is God who in this state is the agent; the soul is the receiver. The soul conducts itself only as the receiver and as one in whom something is being done; God is the giver and the one who works in it, by according spiritual goods in contemplation (which is knowledge and love together, that is, loving knowledge), without the soul's natural acts and discursive reflections, for it can no longer engage in these acts as before.

"Hence persons at this time should be guided in a manner entirely contrary to the former. If, prior to this, directors suggested matter for meditation and these individuals meditated, now this matter should instead be withheld and they should not meditate. For, as I say, they are unable to do so even though they may want to; and were they to try they would be distracted instead of recollected. If previously they sought satisfaction, love, and devotion, and found it, now they should neither desire nor seek it; for not only do they fail to procure it through their own diligence but, on the contrary, they procure dryness. Through the activity they desire to carry on with the senses, they divert themselves from the peaceful and quiet good secretly being given to their spirit. In losing one good they do not gain the other, for these goods are no longer accorded through the senses as before.

"Therefore directors should not impose meditation on persons in this state, nor should they oblige them to make acts or strive for satisfaction and fervor. Such activity would place an obstacle in the path of the principal agent who, as I say, is God, who secretly and quietly inserts in the soul loving wisdom and knowledge, without specified acts; although sometimes he makes specific ones in the soul for a certain length of time. Thus individuals also should proceed only with a loving attention to God, without making specific acts. They should conduct themselves passively, as we have said, without efforts of their own but with the simple, loving awareness, as when opening one's eyes with loving attention.

"Since God, then, as the giver communes with individuals through a simple, loving knowledge, they also, as the receivers, commune with God through a simple and loving knowledge or attention, so knowledge is thus joined with knowledge and love with love. The receiver should act according to the mode of what is received, and not otherwise, in order to receive and keep it in the way it is given. For as the philosophers say: Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver.

"It is obvious that if persons do not lay aside their natural active mode, they will not receive that good except in a natural mode; thus they will not receive it, but will remain only with their natural act. For the supernatural does not fit into the natural mode, nor does it have anything to do with it. If individuals should, then, desire to act on their own through an attitude different from the passive loving attention we mentioned, in which they would remain very passive and tranquil without making any act unless God would unite himself with them in some act, they would utterly hinder the goods God communicates supernaturally to them in the loving knowledge. This loving knowledge is communicated in the beginning through the exercise of interior purgation, in which the individual suffers, as we said, and afterward in the delight of love.

"If as I say - and it is true - this loving knowledge is received passively in the soul according to the supernatural mode of God, and not according to the natural mode of the soul, individuals, if they want to receive it, should be very annihilated in their natural operations, unhampered, idle, quiet, peaceful, and serene, according to the mode of God. The more the air is cleansed of vapors and the quieter and more simple it is, the more the sun illumines and warms it. A person should not bear attachment to anything, neither to the practice of meditation nor to any savor, whether sensory or spiritual, nor to any other apprehensions. Individuals should be very free and annihilated regarding all things, because any thought or discursive reflection or satisfaction on which they may want to lean would impede and disquiet them and make noise in the profound silence of their senses and their spirit, which they possess for the sake of this deep and delicate listening. God speaks to the heart in this solitude, which he mentioned in Hosea [Hos. 2:14], in supreme peace and tranquility while the soul listens, like David, to what the Lord God speaks to it [Ps. 85:8], for he speaks this peace in this solitude.

"When it happens, therefore, that souls are conscious in this manner of being placed in solitude and in the state of listening, they should even forget the practice of loving attentiveness I mentioned so as to remain free for what the Lord then desires of them. They should make use of that loving awareness only when they do not feel themselves placed in this solitude or inner idleness or oblivion or spiritual listening. So they may recognize it, it always comes to pass with a certain peace and calm and inward absorption.

"Once individuals have begun to enter this simple and idle state of contemplation that comes about when they can no longer meditate, they should not at any time or season engage in meditations or look for support in spiritual savor or satisfaction, but stand upright on their own feet with their spirit completely detached from everything, as Habakkuk declared he was obliged to do in order to hear what God spoke to him: I will stand on my watch and fix my foot upon my fortress, and I will contemplate what is said to me [Hb. 2:1]. This is like saying: I will raise my mind above all activity and knowledge belonging to my senses and what they can retain, leaving all below, and will fix the foot of the fortress (my faculties), not allowing these faculties to advance a step as regards their own operation that they may receive through contemplation what God communicates to me; for we have already asserted that pure contemplation lies in receiving.

"It is impossible for this highest wisdom and language of God, which is contemplation, to be received in anything less than a spirit that is silent and detached from discursive knowledge and gratification. Isaiah speaks of it in these words: Whom will he teach knowledge and whom will God make understand the hearing? And Isaiah replies: Those that are weaned from the milk (that is from satisfaction) and drawn away from the breasts (from particular knowledge and apprehensions) [Is. 28:9].

"Wipe away, O spiritual soul, the dust, hairs, and stains, and cleanse your eye; and the bright sun will illumine you, and you will see clearly. Pacify the soul, draw it out, and liberate it from the yoke and slavery of its own weak operation, which is the captivity of Egypt (amounting to not much more than gathering straws for baking bricks) [Ex. 5:7-19]. And, O spiritual master, guide it to the land of promise flowing with milk and honey [Ex. 3:8, 17]. Behold that for this holy liberty and idleness of the children of God, God calls the soul to the desert, where it journeys festively clothed and adorned with gold and silver jewels, since it has now left Egypt and been despoiled of its riches, which is the sensory part [Ex. 32:2-3]. Not only this, but the Egyptians are drowned in the sea of contemplation [Ex. 14:27-28], where the Egyptian of sense, not finding a foothold or some support, drowns and thereby frees the child of God, which is the spirit that has emerged from the narrow limits and slavery of the operation of the senses, from its little understanding, its base feeling, and its poor way of loving and being satisfied, that God may give it the sweet manna. Although this manna has all these tastes and savors [Wis. 16:20]with which you desire the soul to be occupied through its own labor, nonetheless, since it is so delicate it melts in one's mouth, it will not be tasted if mingled with some other taste or some other thing.

"When a soul approaches this state, strive that it become detached from all satisfaction, relish, pleasure, and spiritual meditations, and do not disquiet it with cares and solicitude about heavenly things or, still less, earthly things. Bring it to as complete a withdrawal and solitude as possible, for the more solitude it obtains and the nearer it approaches this idle tranquility the more abundantly will the spirit of divine wisdom be infused into its soul. This wisdom is loving, tranquil, solitary, peaceful, mild, and an inebriator of the spirit, by which the soul feels tenderly and gently wounded and carried away, without knowing by whom or from where or how. The reason is that this wisdom is communicated without the soul's own activity.

"And a little of this that God works in the soul in this holy idleness and solitude is an inestimable good, a good much greater at times than a soul or its director can imagine. And although one is not always so clearly conscious of it, it will in due time shed its light. The least that a person can manage to feel is a withdrawal and an estrangement as to all things, sometimes more than at other times, accompanied by an inclination toward solitude and a weariness with all creatures and with the world, in the gentle breathing of love and life in the spirit. Everything not included in this estrangement becomes distasteful, for, as they say, once the spirit has tasted, all flesh becomes bitter.

"Yet the blessings this silent communication and contemplation impress on the soul, without its then experiencing them, are inestimable, as I say. They are most hidden unctions of the Holy Spirit and hence most delicate; they secretly fill the soul with spiritual riches, gifts, and graces. Since it is God who grants them, he does so in no other manner than as God. "Because of the refined quality and purity of these delicate and sublime anointings and shadings of the Holy Spirit, neither the soul nor its director understands them; only he who bestows them in order to be more pleased with the soul comprehends them. Individuals can with the greatest ease disturb and hinder these anointings by no more than the least act they may desire of their memory, intellect, or will; or by making use of their senses, appetite, and knowledge, or their own satisfaction and pleasure. This is all seriously harmful and a great sorrow and pity.

"Oh, it is a serious and regrettable situation that even though this interfering with these holy unctions seems to cause hardly any damage at all, the harm done is greater and worthy of deeper sorrow and compassion then the harm done in the disturbance and ruin of many other ordinary souls who are not in the position to receive such sublime adornment and shadings! Were a portrait of extremely delicate workmanship touched over with dull and harsh colors by an unpolished hand, the destruction would be worse, more noticeable, and a greater pity than if many other portraits of less artistry were effaced. Who will succeed in repairing that delicate painting of the Holy Spirit once it is marred by a coarse hand?

"Although this damage is beyond anything imaginable, it is so common and frequent that scarcely any spiritual director will be found who does not cause it in souls God is beginning to recollect in this manner of contemplation. How often is God anointing a contemplative soul with some very delicate unguent of loving knowledge, serene, peaceful, solitary, and far withdrawn from the senses and what is imaginable, as a result of which it cannot meditate or reflect on anything, or enjoy anything heavenly or earthly (since God has engaged it in that lonely idleness and given it the inclination to solitude), when a spiritual director will happen along who, like a blacksmith, knows no more than how to hammer and pound with the faculties. Since hammering with the faculties is this director's only teaching, and he knows no more than how to meditate, he will say: "Come, now, lay aside these rest periods, which amount to idleness and a waste of time; take and meditate and make interior acts, for it is necessary that you do your part; this other method is the way of illusions11 and typical of fools."

"Thus, not understanding the stages of prayer or the ways of the spirit, these directors are not aware that those acts they say the soul should make, and the discursive reflection they want it to practice, have already been accomplished. The soul has already reached the negation and silence of the senses and of meditation, and has come to the way of the spirit that is contemplation. In contemplation the activity of the senses and of discursive reflection terminates, and God alone is the agent who then speaks secretly to the solitary and silent soul. These directors fail to observe that if they want to make souls who in this fashion have attained to spirit still walk the path of the senses, they will cause them to turn back and become distracted. If those who have reached the end of their journey continue to walk in order to reach the end, they will necessarily move away from that end, besides doing something ridiculous.

"Once individuals, through the activity of their faculties, have reached the quiet recollection that every spiritual person pursues, in which the functioning of these faculties ceases, it would not merely be useless for them to repeat the acts of these same faculties in order to reach this recollection, but it would be harmful, for in abandoning the recollection already possessed they would become distracted.

"Since these spiritual masters do not understand recollection and spiritual solitude or its properties (in which solitude God applies these sublime unctions to the soul), they superpose or interpose anointings from a lower spiritual exercise, which is the soul's activity, as we said. There is as much difference between what the soul does itself and what it receives from God as there is between a human work and a divine work, between the natural and the supernatural. In one, God works supernaturally in the soul; in the other, only the soul works naturally. What is worse is that by the activity of their natural operations individuals lose inner solitude and recollection and, consequently, the sublime image God was painting within them. Thus all their efforts are like hammering the horseshoe instead of the nail; on the one hand they do harm, and on the other hand they receive no profit.

"These directors should reflect that they themselves are not the chief agent, guide, and mover of souls in this matter, but the principal guide is the Holy Spirit, who is never neglectful of souls, and they themselves are instruments for directing these souls to perfection through faith and the law of God, according to the spirit given by God to each one.

"Thus the whole concern of directors should not be to accommodate souls to their own method and condition, but they should observe the road along which God is leading one; if they do not recognize it, they should leave the soul alone and not bother it. And in harmony with the path and spirit along which God leads a soul, the spiritual director should strive to conduct it into greater solitude, tranquility, and freedom of spirit. He should give it latitude so that when God introduces it into this solitude it does not bind its corporeal or spiritual faculties to some particular object, interior or exterior, and does not become anxious or afflicted with the thought that nothing is being done. Even though the soul is not then doing anything, God is doing something in it.

"Directors should strive to disencumber the soul and bring it into solitude and idleness so it may not be tied to any particular knowledge, earthly or heavenly, or to any covetousness for some satisfaction or pleasure, or to any other apprehension; and in such a way that it may be empty through the pure negation of every creature, and placed in spiritual poverty. This is what the soul must do of itself, as the Son of God counsels: Whoever does not renounce all possessions cannot be my disciple [Lk. 14:33]. This counsel refers not only to the renunciation according to the will of all corporeal and temporal things, but also to the dispossession of spiritual things, which includes spiritual poverty, to which the Son of God ascribes beatitude [Mt. 5:3].

"When the soul frees itself of all things and attains to emptiness and dispossession concerning them, which is equivalent to what it can do of itself, it is impossible that God fail to do his part by communicating himself to it, at least silently and secretly. It is more impossible than it would be for the sun not to shine on clear and uncluttered ground. As the sun rises in the morning and shines on your house so that its light may enter if you open the shutters, so God, who in watching over Israel does not doze [Ps. 121:4] or, still less, sleep, will enter the soul that is empty, and fill it with divine goods.(St John of the Cross, "Living Flame of Love," Stanza 3)

THE CENTRALITY OF THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST IN OVERALL PRAYER LIFE
by Blessed Abbot Columba Marmion, O.S.B.

"At the beginning of its seeking after God, the soul ought to store up intellectual principles and knowledge of our faith. Why? Because, without that, one will not know what to say and the prayer will degenerate into vague reverie, without depth or fruit, or else will become an exercise full of weariness that the soul will soon abandon. This knowledge has first of all to be stored up; then, afterwards, maintained, renewed and increased. How is this to be done? By applying oneself for some time, with the aid of a book, to prolonged reflection on some point of Revelation. The soul consecrates a period, longer or shorter according to its aptitudes, to considering in detail the chief articles of faith. The result is that, in these successive reflections, the necessary notions are gained that serve as a point of departure for prayer.

"This purely discursive work ought not to be confounded with prayer. It is only the introduction, useful and necessary to enlighten, guide, render pliant or sustain the intelligence, but an introduction all the same. Prayer only really begins at the moment when the will, set on fire with love, enters supernaturally into contact with the Divine Good, yielding itself lovingly to God in order to please Him and fulfill His precept and desire. It is in the heart that prayer essentially dwells. It is said of the Blessed Virgin that she kept the words of Jesus In corde suo, " in her heart."

"The following point is of such importance for every soul aspiring to the life of prayer, that I want to insist on it:

"You know that between God and us, between the Creator and the creature the gulf is infinite. "I am Who am," the Being subsisting by Myself. Every other being is taken out of nothingness. Who is going to throw a bridge across this gulf? Christ Jesus. He is preeminently the Mediator,(the Incarnational bridge to the Infinite, enlightening our intellects with love by cataphatic contemplative prayer, from within, by means of the actuation of the Gifts of Wisdom and Understanding operating in a supernatural mode). It is through Jesus Christ alone we can be raised up to God. The Incarnate Word tells us decisively: "No man cometh to the Father, but by Me." It is as if He said:

"You will never attain to the Divinity save in passing through My Humanity."

"Never forget He is the Way, the only way. Christ alone, God and Man, raises us up to His Father. We here see how important it is to have a living faith in Christ Jesus. If we have this faith in the power of His Humanity, as being the Humanity of a God, we shall be assured that Christ can make us enter into contact with God. For, as I have often told you, the Word in uniting Himself to human nature, has, in principle, united us all to Himself. And if we are united to Him by grace, Christ bears us with Him St. Paul says, into "the Holy of holies," the sanctuary of the Divinity where, as Word, He is before all ages.

"Through Christ we have become God's children; it is likewise through Christ and united with Christ that we truly act as children of God and fulfill the duties proceeding from our Divine adoption. Consequently, we ought never to begin our prayer without uniting ourselves, in intention and heart, to Our Lord and without asking Him to introduce us into the Father's presence. We must join our prayers to those He made here below when upon earth, especially to that sublime prayer which as Mediator and Pontiff He unceasingly continues in Heaven for us, ever interceding for us.

"See how Our Lord has sanctified our prayers by His. St. Paul tells us that this Divine High Priest, "in the days of His flesh, with a strong cry and tears, offered up prayers and supplications." "0 Christian, here is a model presented to thee that thou mayest imitate it," says St. Ambrose, when speaking of the prayer of Christ. Jesus prayed for Himself when He asked His Father to glorify Him. He prayed for His disciples, not that they should be taken out of the world but that they should be kept from evil, for they belonged, through Him, to the Father. He prayed for all of us who believe in Him.

"Christ Jesus has, moreover, given us that wonderful formula of prayer wherein is contained all that a child of God can need to ask of his Father in Heaven. 0 Father, "hallowed be Thy name ", may I act in all things for Thy glory, may that be the chief motive power of all my actions; "Thy kingdom come ", in me, in all whom Thou hast created; be truly the Master and King of my heart. In everything, pleasant or painful, "Thy will be done! " May I be able to say, like Thy Son Jesus, that I live for Thee...

"All our prayers, says St. Augustine, ought to refer in their substance to these acts of love, to these supplications, these most pure desires that Christ Jesus, the beloved Son, has placed upon our lips and that His Spirit, the Spirit of adoption, repeats in us. The Pater Noster is essentially the prayer of a child of God.

"Not only has Our Lord sanctified our prayers by His example; not only has He given us the model of them, but He also supports them by His power with God, a Divine, infallible power, for our High Priest has always the right to be heard. He Himself tells us that all we ask the Father in His name, that is to say in making our petition through Him, shall be given to us.

"When, therefore, we come into God's presence, let us certainly be mistrustful of ourselves, but still more let us arouse our faith in the power that Christ, our Head and Elder Brother, has to bring us near to His Father, Who is our Father likewise: "I ascend to my Father and your Father." For if this faith is lively, we cleave closely to Christ, and Christ, Who dwells in us by this faith, takes us with Him where He is. "Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me." And where is He? In the Bosom of the Father. We are by faith there where He is in reality: in the Bosom of the Father.

"In Jesus Christ," says St. Paul, "we have boldness and access (to God) with confidence by faith in Him." Christ, by His Spirit, prays with us, in us. What a motive we have for immense confidence when we come before God! Presented by Christ Who has merited for us our Divine filiation, we "are no more strangers and foreigners " but children; we can open our hearts in tender love, perfectly allied to a deep reverence. The Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of Jesus, harmonizes in us, by His gifts of fear and piety, that profound adoration and that boundless confidence, seemingly at first sight so contrary to one another, and He thereby gives the keynote proper to such an intercourse.

"Let us then lean upon Christ. "Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My name," Jesus says, "that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." "Hitherto," He says again to His disciples, "you have not asked anything in My name. Ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full." To ask in the name of Jesus is to ask what is conformable to our salvation, while remaining united to Him by faith and love, as living members of His Mystical Body. "Christ prays for us as our High Priest. He prays in us as our Head," says St. Augustine. That is why, he adds, the Eternal Father cannot separate us from Christ, any more than the head is separated from the body. In seeing us, He sees His Son, for we make only one with Him.

"And that is why, too, in granting us what His Son asks of Him in us, He "is glorified in His Son," for the Father finds his glory in loving His Son, and being well pleased with Him. St. Teresa says "God is extremely pleased to see a soul humbly place His Divine Son as the intermediary between it and Him." Is not that what the Church herself, Christ's Bride, does when she ends her prayers in the name of her Divine Bridegroom "Who with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest, world without end?"

"At the same time, joy is born to the soul from this life of prayer.

"Of course, while here below, it has not its full perfection; we have still to struggle and cannot always obtain at once what we desire, for, according to St. Augustine, "the man who sows today cannot hope to reap tomorrow "; but that inward joy of being a child of God is made perfect little by little, and we have confidence it will reach its fulness one day in heavenly beatitude. For the soul that gives itself faithfully to prayer is detached more and more from created things, and so enters more fully into the life of God.

"Let us, then, seek to be of those who keep united to God by a life of prayer and let us ask Our Lord to grant us this infinitely precious gift, itself the source of exceeding great graces, in the measure that is good for each one of us according to the Divine Plan. If we are faithful to ask, and, on the other hand, to respond, in the measure of our weakness, to the graces God gives us in Christ, we may be assured we shall live more and more according to the spirit of our adoption, and as children of God and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, for the glory of our heavenly Father and the fulness of our joy.(Blessed Abbot Columba Marmion, O.S.B.)

RESOLUTE PRAYER APPLIES TO LAITY AND ALL
By St Teresa of Avila

"St Teresa has Described for everyone the great importance of setting out upon the practice of prayer with firm resolution and of heeding no difficulties put in the way by the (world, the flesh) and the devil:"

"Do not be dismayed, daughters, at the number of things which you have to consider before setting out on this Divine journey, which is the royal road to Heaven. By taking this road we gain such precious treasures that it is no wonder if the cost seems to us a high one. The time will come when we shall realize that all we have paid has been nothing at all by comparison with the greatness of our prize."

"Let us now return to those who wish to travel on this road, and will not halt until they reach their goal, which is the place where they can drink of this water of life... As I say, it is most important -- all-important, indeed -- that they should begin well by making an earnest and most determined resolve not to halt until they reach their goal, whatever may come, whatever may happen to them, however hard they may have to labour, whoever may complain of them, whether they reach their goal or die on the road or have no heart to confront the trials which they meet, whether the very world dissolves before them. Yet again and again people will say to us: "It is dangerous", "So-and-so was lost through doing this", "Someone else got into wrong ways", "Some other person, who was always praying, fell just the same", "It is bad for virtue", "It is not meant for women; it may lead them into delusions", "They would do better to stick to their spinning", "These subtleties are of no use to them", "It is quite enough for them to say their Paternoster and Ave Maria."

"Pay no heed, then, to anyone who tries to frighten you or depicts to you the perils of the way. What a strange idea that one could ever expect to travel on a road infested by thieves, for the purpose of gaining some great treasure, without running into danger! Worldly people like to take life peaceably; but they will deny themselves sleep, perhaps for nights on end, in order to gain a farthing's profit, and they will leave you no peace either of body or of soul. If, when you are on the way to gaining this treasure, or to taking it by force (as the Lord says the violent do) and are travelling by this royal road -- this safe road trodden by our King and by His elect and His saints -- if even then they tell you it is full of danger and make you so afraid, what will be the dangers encountered by those who think they will be able to gain this treasure and yet are not on the road to it?"

"Oh, my daughters, how incomparably greater must be the risks they run! And yet they have no idea of this until they fall headlong into some real danger. Having perhaps no one to help them, they lose this water altogether, and drink neither much nor little of it, either from a pool or from a stream. How do you suppose they can do without a drop of this water and yet travel along a road on which there are so many adversaries to fight? Of course, sooner or later, they will die of thirst; for we must all journey to this fountain, my daughters, whether we will or no, though we may not all do so in the same way. Take my advice, then, and let none mislead you by showing you any other road than that of prayer."

"I am not now discussing whether or no everyone must practise mental or vocal prayer; but I do say that you yourselves require both. For prayer is the duty of religious. If anyone tells you it is dangerous, look upon that person himself as your principal danger and flee from his company. Do not forget this, for it is advice that you may possibly need. It will be dangerous for you if you do not possess humility and the other virtues; but God forbid that the way of prayer should be a way of danger! This fear seems to have been invented by the devil, who has apparently been very clever in bringing about the fall of some who practise prayer."

"See how blind the world is! It never thinks of all the thousands who have fallen into heresies and other great evils through yielding to distractions and not practising prayer. As against these multitudes there are a few who did practise prayer and whom the devil has been successful enough at his own trade to cause to fall: in doing this he has also caused some to be very much afraid of virtuous practices. Let those who make use of this pretext to absolve themselves from such practices take heed, for in order to save themselves from evil they are fleeing from good. I have never heard of such a wicked invention; it must indeed come from the devil. Oh, my Lord, defend Thyself. See how Thy words are being misunderstood. Permit no such weakness in Thy servants."

"There is one great blessing -- you will always find a few people ready to help you. For it is a characteristic of the true servant of God, to whom His Majesty has given light to follow the true path, that, when beset by these fears, his desire not to stop only increases. He sees clearly whence the devil's blows are coming, but he parries each blow and breaks his adversary's head. The anger which this arouses in the devil is greater than all the satisfaction which he receives from the pleasures given him by others. When, in troublous times, he has sown his tares, and seems to be leading men everywhere in his train, half-blinded, and [deceiving them into] believing themselves to be zealous for the right, God raises up someone to open their eyes and bid them look at the fog with which the devil has obscured their path. (How great God is! To think that just one man, or perhaps two, can do more by telling the truth than can a great many men all together!) And then they gradually begin to see the path again and God gives them courage. If people say there is danger in prayer, this servant of God, by his deeds if not by his words, tries to make them realize what a good thing it is... So, because just one or two are fearlessly following the better path, the Lord gradually regains what He had lost."

"Cease troubling about these fears, then, sisters; and never pay heed to such matters of popular opinion. This is no time for believing everyone; believe only those whom you see modelling their lives on the life of Christ. Endeavour always to have a good conscience; practise humility; despise all worldly things; and believe firmly in the teaching of our Holy Mother [the Roman] Church. You may then be quite sure that you are on a [very] good road. Cease, as I have said, to have fear where no fear is; if any one attempts to frighten you, point out the road to him in all humility... If they tell you that you should practise only vocal prayer, ask whether your mind and heart ought not to be in what you say. If they answer "Yes" -- and they cannot do otherwise -- you see they are admitting that you are bound to practise mental prayer, and even contemplation, if God should grant it you. (St Teresa of Avila, "Way of Perfection," Ch. 21)

"Since we have resolved to devote to Him this very brief period of(prayer) time -- only a small part of what we spend upon ourselves and upon people who are not particularly grateful to us for it -- let us give it Him freely, with our minds unoccupied by other things and entirely resolved never to take it back again, whatever we may suffer through trials, annoyances or aridities. Let me realize that this time is being lent me and is not my own, and feel that I can rightly be called to account for it if I am not prepared to devote it wholly to God."

"I say "wholly", but we must not be considered as taking it back if we should fail to give it Him for a day, or for a few days, because of legitimate occupations or through some indisposition. Provided the intention remains firm, my God is not in the least meticulous; He does not look at trivial details; and, if you are trying to please Him in any way, He will assuredly accept that as your gift. The other way is suitable for ungenerous souls, so mean that they are not large-hearted enough to give but find it as much as they can do to lend. Still, let them make some effort, for this Lord of ours will reckon everything we do to our credit and accept everything we want to give Him. In drawing up our reckoning, He is not in the least exacting, but generous; however large the amount we may owe Him, it is a small thing for Him to forgive us. And, as to paying us, He is so careful about this that you need have no fear He will leave us without our reward if only we raise our eyes to Heaven and remember Him."

"A second reason why we should be resolute is that this will give the devil less opportunity to tempt us. He is very much afraid of resolute souls, knowing by experience that they inflict great injury upon him, and, when he plans to do them harm, he only profits them and others and is himself the loser. We must not become unwatchful, or count upon this, for we have to do with treacherous folk, who are great cowards and dare not attack the wary, but, if they see we are careless, will work us great harm. And if they know anyone to be changeable, and not resolute in doing what is good and firmly determined to persevere, they will not leave him alone either by night or by day and will suggest to him endless misgivings and difficulties. This I know very well by experience and so I have been able to tell you about it: I am sure that none of us realize its great importance."

"Another reason, very much to the point, is that a resolute person fights more courageously. He knows that, come what may, he must not retreat. He is like a soldier in battle who is aware that if he is vanquished his life will not be spared and that if he escapes death in battle he must die afterwards. It has been proved, I think, that such a man will fight more resolutely and will try, as they say, to sell his life dearly, fearing the enemy's blows the less because he understands the importance of victory and knows that his very life depends upon his gaining it. We must also be firmly convinced from the start that, if we fight courageously and do not allow ourselves to be beaten, we shall get what we want, and there is no doubt that, however small our gains may be, they will make us very rich. Do not be afraid that the Lord Who has called us to drink of this spring will allow you to die of thirst. This I have already said and I should like to repeat it; for people are often timid when they have not learned by experience of the Lord's goodness, even though they know of it by faith. It is a great thing to have experienced what friendship and joy He gives to those who walk on this road and how He takes almost the whole cost of it upon Himself."