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MEDITATION

 

The desire we have to obtain divine love makes us meditate, but love obtained makes us contemplate. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 3)

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Your way is good and there is nothing to object to, save that you go on consider­ing your steps too much, for fear of falling. (Letters to Persons in Religion, III 16)

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Meditation produces good movements in the will or loving part of our soul. (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part II, Chapter 6)

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If you have the gift for mental prayer, always reserve for that the principal place above private vocal prayers. (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part II, Chapter 1)

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In striving to raise our reasonings too high in divine things by curiosity we grow empty in our thoughts, and instead of arriving at the knowledge of truth, we fall into the folly of our vanity. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 4, Chapter 7)

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It is better to sleep upon the sacred breast than to watch elsewhere, wherever it be. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 8)

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The grace of meditation cannot be gained by any effort of the mind; but there must be a gentle and humble per­severance. (Letters to Persons in Religion, I 9)

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If in prayer the Holy Spirit gives you the affection before the consideration, you should not make the consideration, since it is only made to stir up the affection. (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part II, Chapter 8)

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Spend an hour in meditation every day. (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part II, Chapter 1)

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Holy Church does not teach us to pray for ourselves in particular, but always for ourselves and for our Christian brethren. (Letters to Persons in the World, III 11)

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Always say we and us, as our Lord has taught us in the Pater Noster, in which there is no mine, or my, or me. (Spiritual Conferences, 18)

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Let all meditations on "the last four things" end always with hope and con­fidence. (Letters to Persons in Religion, I 6)

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Consider what God is doing and what you are doing. (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part II, Chapter 12)

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If it please God to give us affections without reasonings and considerations, it is for us a great grace. (Letters to Persons in Religion, IV 9)

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If while saying your private vocal prayers, you feel your heart drawn to interior prayer, do not resist the attrac­tion. (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part II, Chapter 1)

 

Recollection of the heart

Recollection of the heart is not made by the preparation of love, but by love itself. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 5, Chapter 7)

The chief exercise of prayer is to speak to God and to hear God speak in the bottom of our heart. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 1)

Always distinguish clearly between the workings of the higher part of your soul and those of the lower. (Spiritual Conferences, 14)

The sacred gift of prayer is already in the right hand of the Saviour; as soon as ever you shall have emptied yourself of self, He will pour it into your heart. (Letters to Persons in Religion, III 19)

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He who in praying to God notices that he is praying, is not perfectly attentive to prayer. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 10)

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The best prayer is that which keeps us so well employed in God that we think not of ourselves or of what we are doing. (Letters to Persons in Religion, IV 9)

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If you reflect and bring your eyes back­ward upon yourself to see how you look when you look upon God, it is not now He that you behold but your own be­havior—yourself.  (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 10)

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There are souls who cannot pause and fix their thoughts on any special mystery, being attracted to a certain simplicity which keeps them in perfect tranquillity before God, with no other consideration than the knowledge that they are before Him and that He is their only Good. (Spiritual Conferences, 18)

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In prayer of quiet, the contentment of the will is to admit no other contentment but that of being without contentment for the love of the good pleasure of its God. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 11)

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The height of love's ecstasy is to have our will not in its own contentment but in God's. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, Chapter 11)

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What good does a soul get from being ravished unto God by prayer, if in its con­versation and life it is ravished away by earthly, low and natural affections? (Letters to Persons in the World, VI 57)

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When we see a soul that has raptures in prayer and yet no ecstasy in her life, these raptures are exceedingly doubtful and dangerous. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 7, Chapter 7)

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There was never a saint but has had the ecstasy of life and operation. (Letters to Persons in the World, VI 57)

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He who in his rapture has more light in the understanding to admire God, than heat in the will to love Him, is to stand upon his guard. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 7, Chapter 6)

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If the ecstasy of love be more beautiful than good, more bright than warm, more speculative than affective, it is deserving of suspicion. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 7, Chapter 6)

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The secret of secrets in prayer is to follow attractions in simplicity of heart. (Letters to Persons in Religion, IV 9)

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Think no more about the unity which God has made in you, nor your heart, nor your soul, nor anything whatsoever. (Letters to Persons in Religion, III 6)

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