The Catholic Prayer Book and Manual of Meditations/On Mental Prayer or Meditation
On Mental Prayer, or Meditation.
MEDITATION is morally necessary to salvation, because it is impossible to know the truths and the mysteries of our holy religion, except by the eyes of the soul; in other words, by frequent and serious reflection. He who neglects this, walks, as St. Augustine says, with his eyes shut, and in this way it will be impossible for him to discover the road which he ought to choose, and the means which he ought to employ, in order to arrive at his destination, namely, at heaven.
But meditation is chiefly necessary to salvation, because he who is not in the habit of meditating does not pray, and so is lost. He who does not meditate will scarcely be able for any length of time to avoid mortal sin, for he will live in continual distraction, and will not be conscious of his own wants He will make no account of the dangers which surround him ; he will not exert himself to employ the means to escape from them, and finally, recognising no longer how necessary prayer is to his salvation, he will abandon it, and so be lost.
The world is filled with sins, and hell with damned souls, because Christians no longer meditate upon eternal truths. u With desolation is all the land made desolate ; because there is none that considereth in the heart." (Jer. xii.) But, on the contrary, he who often thinks of death, judgment, and eternity, will abandon sin ; otherwise he must leave off meditating, for it is impossible that meditation and sin should be found in company. "Remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin." (Eccl. vii. 40.)
It is God that speaks to you in meditation, and God speaks to you much better than any preacher can. It is through meditation that the saints have been sanctified, for it is in meditation we learn to turn away our hearts from all sinful attachment to this world, and to direct them towards God.
HOW TO MEDITATE.
Before meditation, place yourself devoutly upon your knees. If you are able to remain kneeling without injury to your health, it should be done, but if it is likely to prove injurious, you may stand or sit.
Then begin the preparation to your meditation, in which you must never forget to place yourself, first of all, in the presence of God. This may be done by repeating the following Acts: "O my God! I am firmly persuaded that thou art here present, and I adore thee from the depths of my nothingness.”
Then humble yourself before God, saying: “ O my God, too often have I offended thee. I am sorry for All my sins. Pardon me in thy infinite mercy.”
Lastly, pray God to enlighten you: “ Eternal Father! for the love of Jesus and of Mary, enlighten me in this meditation, in order that I may profit by it.”
“ In meditating with a book,” says St. Francis of Sales, “we should imitate bees, which stay on a flower so long as it affords them honey, and then pass on to another. Use good thoughts in the same way, yourself. Some will be richer in honey for you — such honey as suits your present condition; other thoughts, good in themselves, will seem to afford you less. Receive the little gratefully, and pass on to the next flower to make another effort. It is the endeavour to be industrious that God will take delight in.”
The subject of meditation should generally be calculated to awaken us to a confidence in, and love of, God. Let your meditation on the eternal truths themselves be of such a nature as to lead you gently to love and glorify God, and confide in him. Let your quiet endeavour be to draw yourself into affections of the heart, rather than into reflections of the mind. Reflection is the means only, affection the end. Not only commence your meditation with recollection and peace, but without anxiety or superfluous fears of distraction. “The best of prayers,” said St. Francis of Sales, “is that in which we keep ourselves in peace and calmness in the presence of our Lord, without other desire or pretension than that of being with him and doing his will.” The child that rests upon the bosom of its mother does not speak, save with its loving looks and its apparent delight while reposing in her maternal arms.
The essential point of meditation consists in the following things:
1. To awaken the affections. — We ought therefore to humble ourselves with heartfelt sincerity, to animate our faith and our hope, and,' above all, to make acts of contrition, and of love of God, of conformity to his holy will, and to offer ourselves up entirely to him. We should repeat the same affections over and over again, especially those to which we feel the most inclined.
2. We must make petitions. — ft is in meditation that God shows us our misery, and how much we need his grace to conquer our evil inclinations. For this reason the time of meditation is the fittest time for prayer. God ordinarily gives his grace, and especially the grace of perseverance, to those who pray.
3. We must make good resolutions. — After having discovered by meditation what we have to do on our part in order to live in conformity with the holy will of God, and having asked his assistance, it still remains for us to put in practice what we have thus seen to be necessary, otherwise our meditation will be fruitless. We must therefore make a serious resolve to avoid such or such a fault, to do this or that good work the very first occasion, [t is necessary also, from time to time during the day, to recall the good resolution we have taken for fear lest, when the occasion arrives, it should be already forgotten. After the good resolution comes the end of the meditation. Then we must thank God for the holy inspirations which he has given us, and beseech him, for the love of Jesus and of Mary, to help us to carry out in practice the good resolutions we have made. Also, before the meditation is over, we ought to recommend to God the souls in purgatory, the Holy Church, Our friends and benefactors, and all poor sinners, saying for this purpose a Pater and an Ave, which are the most efficacious of all prayers.