Quote, from True Spouse:
St. Ignatius of Loyola used to say that mental prayer is the short way to attain perfection. In a word, he who advances most in meditation makes the greatest progress in perfection. In mental prayer the soul is filled with holy thoughts, with holy affections, desires, and holy resolutions, and with love for God. There man sacrifices his passions, his appetites, his earthly attachments, and all the interests of self-love. Moreover, by praying for them in mental prayer we can save many sinners, as was done by St. Teresa, St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, and is done by all souls enamoured of God, who never omit in their meditations to recommend to him all infidels, heretics, and all poor sinners; begging him also to give zeal to priests who work in his vineyard, that they may convert his enemies. In mental prayer we can also, by the sole desire of performing them, gain the merit of many good works which we do not perform. For as the Lord punishes bad desires, so, on the other hand, he rewards all our good desires.
1 " Sedebit solitarius, et tacebit, quia levavit super se." Lam. iii. 28.
It is necessary, above all, to be careful not to go to mental prayer in order to enjoy consolation and tenderness, but for the purpose of pleasing God, and of learning from him how he wishes to be loved and served by us. Father Balthazar Alvarez used to say: "The love of God consists not in receiving his favors, but in serving him through the sole motive of pleasing him. And he would say, that divine consolation is like the refreshment that we take on a journey not to rest in it, but in order to go forward with greater vigour. When you feel aridity in meditation, be careful to persevere, in spite of all the tediousness that you experience, and know that you then give great pleasure to your Spouse, and acquire great merits. Say to him then: O my Jesus, why dost Thou treat me thus ? Thou hast stripped me of all things, of property, of relatives, of my will, and I have been satisfied with these privations, in order to gain Thee; but why dost Thou now deprive me also of Thyself ? Say this to him with an humble affection; he will make thee feel that he does all because he loves thee, and for thy greater good. Father Torres used to say: " To carry the cross with Jesus without consolation, makes the soul run and fly to perfection."
No comments:
Post a Comment