The School of Love, March 4

SOME HINTS ON PRAYER, Part III

[continued from yesterday]

This last remark suggests a word of warn­ing. We are told by saints who knew much about prayer that we should examine our prayer and see if we can what makes us fail.

This is very sound advice; no matter what hints may be suggested for prayer, the soundest hint is that we should study our own soul, find the way that it finds easiest and best, and cultivate that as well as we are able. St. Teresa encourages this method; so do many modern teachers of prayer.

At the same time, during the hour of prayer itself, there is no distraction more fatal than to reflect and ask oneself whether one is pray­ing well or not. Such a process is often mere vanity, and vanity is the ruin of all prayer. It kills spontaneity, it stifles fervour, it puts a veil between oneself and God; it may even sub­stitute oneself and one's own image in the place of Him to whom we wish to pray.

Let preparation for prayer be as careful as we like; after prayer let us ask ourselves what has helped us most, and what has been a hindrance. But during prayer let there be nothing be­tween the heart and God. The great effort of the soul should be to realisation of the truth; and this, if gained even for a moment, as St. Teresa very well says, is worth all the pains that may be taken, and bears fruit in great peace of mind.

One last remark may be made in regard to the attitude to prayer. It is said of St. Igna­tius Loyola that during his busy day he had little time for long prayer, but that he would find satisfaction in a few moments here and there, whether in his room or before the Blessed Sacrament.

But even for these few moments he would pause before he began; he would not plunge into even so short a prayer without some kind of preparation, some thought of what he was about to do and how he was about to do it.

When he went into the chapel, if only for a passing visit, he would stand for a time with his hand on the door­handle before he entered the presence of his "Master and Lord," as he delighted in calling Jesus.

When we think of this example, and when we think of ourselves, and the way we run unreflectingly into prayer, and when after­wards we complain that we could not pray at all, but that our minds were wandering all the time, perhaps if we cared we could find the cause of these distractions very easily.

If, before we began our prayer, we would steady our mind, withdraw it from its surroundings, and turn it in the direction along which we wish it to go, perhaps we should find a grow­ing power of self-control. And this is espe­cially true, and especially necessary, in any such prayer as tries to be independent of forms, such as has been here illustrated.
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From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918