The Priest at Prayer, May 30

Second Part
The Priestly Ministry

The First Ministerial Duty

Fourth Meditation - The Priest's Practice of Mental Prayer

I. How long should my daily meditation last?

We all know St. Teresa's advice - if it is hers - to meditate for at least one quarter of an hour each day.

"If a soul perseveres in mental prayer, however many sins, temptations, and lapses the devil may bring about in a thousand different ways, I hold it a certainty that the Lord will finally see her safe in the harbour of salvation." (Life, chap. viii)

We should profit greatly if we read again and again this chapter eight of the life of that wonderful " Mater spiritualium." On this all-important theme it contains lapidary expressions, such as the following:

"Although we are always in God's Presence, it seems to me that those who take up prayer seriously are present to God in a different way, because they see that God is looking at them."

If I could only feel God's gaze on me for fifteen minutes each day! At the trifling expense of one quarter of an hour's "seeing that God is looking at me," this is the bargain I get: freedom from mortal sin, at least.

What excuse shall I make to Thee, Lord, on the Day of Reckoning if even this I refuse Thee, and thus remain in sin?

II. Where shall I meditate?

In the last resort, wherever God is, and He tells us:

"Do I not fill heaven and earth?" (Jerem. xxiii, 24)

But, if you can manage it, choose a place of retire­ment:

"When thou art praying, go into thy inner room and shut the door upon thyself." (Matt. vi, 6)

It would be preferable, perhaps, in your own bedroom, after dressing and saying your morning prayers, before you go out and get busy with other affairs; because if in the early morning your mental prayer was neglected or impeded, it is not easy to make it later in the day. And happy you if you can spend this quarter of an hour before the Blessed Sacrament, where it will be so much easier to place yourself in God's Presence, where every­thing is conducive to recollection, and where our Lord's promise finds literal fulfilment: 1 am there in the midst of them.

And what posture should I adopt?

Let it be devout, becoming, and naturally indicative of God's Presence. Christ, however, prayed prostrate upon the ground: the posture more of a slave and humbler than any other known to man - and Christ was the Only-Begotten of the Father! We, poor wretches, what shall we do? We may stand, sit, or kneel, as we please; as long as our demeanour reflects the highest respect for the Majesty of the One in Whose Presence we pray.

III. At what time of the day?

At daybreak, after the example of the Psalmist:

Praevenerunt oculi mei ad te diluculo ut medi­tarer eloquia tua. (Ps. cxviii, 147)

"Twilight comes, and I awake to plead with Thee."
And after the example of our Lord Himself:

"Then, at very early dawn, he left them, and went away to a lonely place, and began praying there." (Mark i, 35)

Your early morning prayer will please God immensely, because you will be starting the day with a gift of time otherwise given to resting.

At no other time will your spirit be so free to mount the calm regions of the divine Mysteries. Every hour that slips by during the day leaves on one's conscious mind a trail of worry, regret, or some deep sensorial impression, like so much birdlime fettering the flight of the mind from the things of earth.

Moreover, your early rising, if I may say so, will cut at the roots of those serious dangers which a refined sense of chastity encounters in over-sleeping, in the soft and sensuous indulgence of drowsy semi-consciousness when the weak human will is the only one asleep, while the rabid instincts of the flesh emerge from their kennel
and begin to whine for their food.

The priest who does not rise early and who yields with dilly-dallying complacency to the pleasure of morn­ing dozing will not make his meditation; he will not be devout, perhaps not even upright and honest; nor will his parishioners be good Christians if their shepherd is still sleeping when they have to be already at work in fields, factories, and offices, having had to pass by a mute belfry, by the bolted and barred doors of a silent church, as though it were a shop that had gone out of business or a haunted house.

O Jesus, alone and forgotten in those churches that do not open until mid-morning, deliver Thy Church from the shame of seeing Her homes of prayer the last to open and the first to close, like so many redundant show­rooms.

Give to Thy flock watchful and thoughtful shepherds who will rise at break of day to gather for themselves and for their sheep the manna of divine blessings.

IV. What method of prayer shall I use?

Several authors have given their own: SS. Ignatius of Loyola, Peter of Alcantara, Francis de Sales, and among the masters of the spiritual life, Fr. Granada. They all agree as to the need for establishing some sort of orderly use of the mental faculties; so we might sum up in the words of Astete's popular Spanish catechism:

"What is mental prayer? That which is done by exercising the powers of the soul: remembering something good and holy with the memory; think­ing about it and reasoning it out with the intellect; and with the will, making various acts, such as sorrow for sin, or various resolutions, such as to go to confession or to lead a better life."

But when all is said and done, perhaps the most suit­able method for everyone, with few exceptions, will be that very simple procedure adopted by St. Teresa during those eighteen years of difficulty and dryness when she found herself unable to dispense with aids to meditation, and until God raised her to lofty supernatural contem­plation. These are her words:

"Now I seem to understand why the Lord pro­vided that I should find no one to teach me (methods of discursive prayer), because it would have seemed an impossibility to persevere those eighteen years which I spent in such difficulty and such great aridity through not knowing, as I say, how to use my reasoning power in prayer.

During all those years, except perhaps just after receiving Holy Communion, I never dared to settle down to prayer without a book; I was scared to be without it; I felt like going out defenceless to an armed mob. With this remedy - the book - which was like a bodyguard or a shield warding off the assaults of many distracting thoughts, I went along consoled. Not that aridity was the ordinary thing, but it came upon me whenever I was without a book, and my soul was immediately routed; but with the book my soul began to gather its thoughts together and to hold them caressingly.

And often it was enough merely to have the book beside me. Sometimes I read a little, sometimes a lot, according to the favour the Lord dispensed me. And so it seemed to me at the beginning that as long as I had a book and could find solitude there was no danger which could deprive me of such great good."

What the great Mistress of the spiritual life so graphi­cally depicts is rather like the usual comportment of our fickle and restless imagination than an extraordinary path of trial, don't you think so? Then, after the Saint's example, keep it on a leash during meditation, by the deliberate and well-pondered reading of a spiritual book.

Resolution
From tomorrow I shall rise early. Five o'clock? . . .Six? . . . It depends on the season of the year.

And I shall take all necessary measures to overcome my laziness. I shall not leave my bedroom without first having gone through my quarter or half-hour's medi­tation leisurely, unless I can easily do it in the church. This resolution will be part of my examination of con­science before going to Confession; and if I have failed, I shall accuse myself clearly and bluntly.

"Perish the skill of my right hand" (Ps. cxxxvi, 5) if I overlook this resolution!
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Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!