Of Interior Recollection

Article III

Of the means of acquiring interior recollection

We may now confidently repeat that interior recollection is a treasure, for the acquisition of which no sacrifice should be spared.

It is a paradise of delights. Our soul has, without doubt, frequently experienced the necessity of uniting itself with God alone, by taking up its abode in this holy solitude; but as the Royal Prophet demanded “the wings of the dove, that he might fly away and be at rest,”¹³⁰130Ps. liv. 7. so we also should rise superior to ourselves. We should assume spiritual wings, that is, the means of acquiring interior recollection, to fly off to the solitude of the heart.

These means, at least the most powerful of them, are: the observance of silence, the habit of which is chiefly acquired by remaining in our room, the flight of over-dissipating occupations, and the frequent exercise of the presence of God.

1. Of the observance of silence and fidelity in remaining in our room

The first means of acquiring interior recollection is the habit of silence, acquired by an undeviating fidelity in remaining in our room. Between these two practices there exists an intimate connection: they are sisters in some sort, which lend each other mutual support. We shall not, therefore, separate them here; we shall, on the contrary, place them both in the front rank of the means adapted to the acquisition of interior recollection: they p. 175are, besides, so necessary for this end, that without their aid in vain should we aspire to reach it; for recollection is a rare grace, “which will not enter a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins.”¹³¹131Wisd. i. 4. Loquacity and dissipation, on the contrary, are, according to the Holy Ghost, an exhaustless source of faults; “in a multitude of words there shall not want sin,”¹³²132Prov. x. 19. because it is then that man pours himself out on creatures, and thus becomes incapable of receiving the grace of recollection.

But besides, even though the Almighty should, by a pure effect of His bounty, have already granted us this most delicate virtue, how can we preserve it, unaided by Him? It is true, then, that intemperance of the tongue is incompatible with the precious advantages of interior solitude.

The practice of interior recollection requires on man’s part purity of heart, the spirit of prayer, the habit of ejaculatory prayer, a kind of predisposition and attraction for solitude. It demands that his soul, avaricious of heavenly things, should love to abide within itself, and separate itself from the bustle and turmoil of creatures; but never, assuredly, shall we unite all these conditions without the observance of silence and assiduity in remaining in our room. This is a truth which the authority of the saints and daily experience testify.

A religious who frequently leaves his cell, who goes through the house, frequents public-places, stops every one he meets, in order to hold long, useless conversations, resembles a vase of perfume devoid of its cover, the odour of which quickly evaporates.

He cannot preserve either delicacy of conscience, or fervour, or repose or attention to the presence of God, because his imagination amuses itself with frivolities, his mind expands itself on vain thoughts, while the tumult of the passions fatigues his will, and tepidity and indifference take possession of his soul, inflicting thereon innumerable wounds. Never shall that heart be the depository of the rich and inestimable treasure of recollection; this precious grace, therefore, is irretrievably lost by whoever neglects to observe solitude and silence. “He who aims at inward and spiritual things must, with Jesus Christ, turn aside from the crowd; because a devout soul becomes more familiar with her Creator the farther she dwelleth from all the tumult of the world.”¹³³133Imit. b. i. ch. 20. No; in no place does the lily of justice grow more luxuriantly or shine more resplendently than in the solitude of the soul. “It is easier to keep silence altogether than not to fall into excess in speaking; to keep retired at home than to be sufficiently upon one’s guard abroad; and we seldom return to silence without some wound to conscience.”¹³⁴134Ibid. Generally speaking, the soul takes away with it, from its conversations with men, only dissipation of mind, the stain of sin, uneasiness, remorse, sadness, weariness, and vain thoughts, all of which are so many obstacles and preventatives to interior recollection. The dissipated, facetious, talkative man is on the high road to grave faults. Without silence, says Albert the Great, “a man is easily conquered by his adversary.” Solomon teaches us the same in the following comparison: “A man that cannot refrain his own spirit in speaking is as a city that lieth open, and is not compassed with walls,”¹³⁵135Prov. xxv. 28. which offers no opposition to the enemy; he shall be easily vanquished by the devil.

St. Gregory explains the steps by which dissipation usually leads us into sin. “We commence,” says he, “by useless words, idle words succeed; they, in turn, are superseded by buffooneries, then follow lies, then angry words, and finally scandalous expressions: in a word, we commence by little things and end by great ones.” Behold into what faults dissipation precipitates us: and how can we imagine there could be any connection between interior recollection, which is a fruit of heavenly origin, and such monstrous faults? No; once again, without solitude and silence never shall we acquire the habit of recollection.

The Sulamitess herself did not find her Beloved so long as she sought Him “in the streets and broad ways of the city.” She was not permitted to enjoy the sweetness of His conversations till she had returned “to her Mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that bore her.”¹³⁶136Cant. iii. 2, 4.

Behold the reason why “the greatest saints avoided the company of men as much as they could, and chose to live alone with God in secret,”¹³⁷137Imit. b. i. ch. 20. being fully persuaded that it is not in society and the bustle of human conversation that they can hear the light whisper of the Spirit of God and find the way of perfection. “David became like a sparrow all alone; like a night raven in the house, like to a pelican of the wilderness, because he feared,” lest being too much engrossed with exterior things, “his heart should wither as grass”¹³⁸138Ps. ci. 7. mown by the scythe.

Jesus Christ, to teach His disciples a love of solitude and silence, makes them interrupt their apostolic functions. He separates them for a time from the society of men and “leads them into a desert place.”¹³⁹139Mark vi. 31. God requires p. 177that Moses should keep silence and withdraw from the people; it is only in “the darkness of a cloud from the depth of the Ark of the Covenant”¹⁴⁰140Exod. xix. 9. that He intimates His will and reveals His secrets to him.

The Spouse, the moment the voice of her Beloved falls upon her ear, is silent, and hides herself, “like the dove in the clifts of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall;”¹⁴¹141Cant. ii. 14. she knows that it “is while all things are in quiet silence that the Almighty Word leaped down from heaven from His royal throne.”¹⁴²142Wisd. xviii. 14.

Silence and solitude are, therefore, the two sacred wings with which we may soar to the pinnacle of perfection, the two channels by which the Source of all blessings dispenses to us His graces. If we do not observe silence, if we do not remain in our room, never shall we obtain interior recollection or attain to sanctity; our soul will not enter into communication with the Holy Spirit, it will not make any progress in virtue. Such is the meaning of the reproach addressed to Job: “Shall a man full of talk be justified?”¹⁴³143Job xi. 2. No, here replies St. Gregory the Great, the man abounding in words shall never rise to the perfection of justice. He who knows how to bridle his tongue preserves himself irreprehensible in his words, “and if any man offend not in word,” says St. James, “the same is a perfect man:”¹⁴⁴144James iii. 2. so powerful a means of advancing in perfection is this holy and salutary custom of moderating our speech and observing interior recollection!

Let us examine ourselves: have we, according to the advice of Ecclesiasticus, “made a just bridle for our mouth?”¹⁴⁵145Eccli. xxviii. 29. Are we wont to remain in our room? Do we p. 178imitate the dove despatched by Noah from the ark? She did not forget the retreat that had sheltered her, but eagerly returned there to seek for rest. Do we not rather resemble the voracious raven which remained hovering and croaking over the dead bodies, and whose return was vainly waited for?

Do we obey the admonition of the apostle, and “avoid foolish and old wives’ fables?”¹⁴⁶1461 Tim. iv. 7. Do we await the coming of the Holy Ghost retired in our cell, as the apostles awaited Him shut up in the supper-room? Are we not of the number of those so well characterised by St. Paul as “idlers, tattlers, busy-bodies, speaking things which they ought not, and who learn to go about from house to house?”¹⁴⁷1471 Tim. v. 13.

Should we recognise in ourselves any of these defects, let us promptly correct them and make a firm resolution never to leave our room except when necessity, charity, or obedience makes it a duty to do so. When we leave it through any of these motives, let us, before doing so, raise our hearts to God, implore His grace to avoid what may have formerly been occasions of sin to us, as well as such as may present themselves in the occupations to which duty calls us.

“Let us hedge in our ears with thorns,”¹⁴⁸148Eccli. xxviii. 28. that is, according to the interpretation of St. Gregory Nazianzen, “let us shut them against evil discourse and vain conversations.” “Not only have we to beware lest our tongue speak evil,” says St. Bernard, “we must also be on our guard lest the tongue of another teach us to speak evil,” and fill our mind with vain thoughts; “let us not hear a wicked tongue,”¹⁴⁹149Ibid. as a man would do who is foolishly eager for news and public reports.

Let us, with the Royal Prophet, “turn away our eyes that they may not behold vanity;”¹⁵⁰150Ps. cxviii. 37. let us not be in the house as a steward, who is obliged to take note of all that occurs there, but let us apply to ourselves the words of Jesus Christ to St. Peter: “What is it to thee? for thy part follow me;”¹⁵¹151John xxi. 22. let us imitate David, who “as a deaf man heard not: and as a dumb man opened not his mouth.”¹⁵²152Ps. xxxvii. 14.

We can say nothing more effective on this subject than these words of the “Imitation”: “Son, in many things it behoveth thee to be ignorant and esteem thyself one dead upon earth, and as one to whom the whole world is crucified. Many things also must thou pass by with a deaf ear, as it is more profitable to turn away thy eyes from such things as displease thee.”¹⁵³153Imit. b. iii. ch. 4. If we observe these wise counsels, if, when we are obliged to go out, we are docile to the guidance of our good angel, we shall return not only free from stain, but with an increase of merit.

In our conversations let us follow the advice of Holy Writ, and place “a door to our mouth.”¹⁵⁴154Eccli. xxviii. 28. The door of a house is neither always open nor always closed; but is opened or closed according to the weather or to the persons who seek admission; we open it to our friends and close it against our enemies. It is thus we should act as regards ourselves, by opening the door of our mouth to pious, prudent, useful words, and closing it against evil and perverse ones: but as the door of our mouth turns with a marvellous facility, let us take wise precautions to guard against a surprise.

The first rule to be observed regards the time in which p. 179we should speak; for “there is a time to be silent and a time to speak,”¹⁵⁵155Eccli. xx. 6. says Solomon. To be able to discern this moment is great wisdom, and to conform our conduct to it is great prudence; it is even, according to the testimony of the Holy Ghost, the mark which distinguishes the wise man from the fool. “A wise man will hold his peace till he see” a suitable “opportunity: but a babbler and a fool will regard no time.”¹⁵⁶156Ibid. xx. 7. “To speak a word in due time is like apples on beds of silver;”¹⁵⁷157Prov. xxv. 11. “but a parable spoken out of due season shall be rejected.”¹⁵⁸158Eccli. xx. 22. How important it is, therefore, to discern and avail ourselves of the proper moment for speaking.

1. Let us beware of speaking when we ought to keep silence, because without grace it would be impossible to speak well, and we have no right to expect God to assist us in our words at a time that He orders us to keep silence.

2. Let us not speak before the proper time, according to this maxim of Ecclesiasticus: “Before thou hear answer not a word, and interrupt not others in the midst of their discourse;”¹⁵⁹159Ibid. xi. 8. for “he that answereth before he heareth, showeth himself to be a fool and worthy of confusion.”¹⁶⁰160Prov. xviii. 13.

3. Let us not speak longer than is necessary. Let not our mouth be as a pierced vase, which allows all the liquor it contains to escape and be lost: all that our mind contains of good would likewise be lost in the air with our words.

A recollected soul will understand how to keep silence under these three circumstances, and shall be replenished with peace. Of this the Holy Ghost has given us p. 180a formal promise: “He that keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from distress.”¹⁶¹161Prov. xxi. 23.

The second rule refers to the “subject” of our discourse. The apostle teaches us our obligations in this respect in his Epistle to the Ephesians: “Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth, but that which is good to the edification of the faith.”¹⁶²162Ephes. iv. 29. St. Peter gives us a similar admonition: “If any man speak, let him speak as the words of God.”¹⁶³1631 Pet. iv. 11.

It suffices not, then, “that old matters depart from our mouth;”¹⁶⁴1641 Kings ii. 3. that is, according to the interpretation of the Fathers, it is not enough to abstain from haughty, harsh, offensive, sinful, and scandalous words; but our conversations, after the example of the apostles, must be replete with God and heavenly things, and animated with such fervour that it will be true to say: “from our mouth came a two-edged sword,”¹⁶⁵165Apoc. i. 16. a type of the love and religious fear with which our words should penetrate the hearts of our hearers.

The third rule teaches us the manner in which we should speak, which consists in discretion. “To speak with discretion,” says Peter of Blois, “is to speak when necessity or utility requires it. It is to speak beseemingly of God, of our neighbour, and of ourselves: of ourselves with humility and modesty; of our neighbour with edification, and of God in praise.” St. Basil desires that even in our recreations our conversations should be seasoned with the salt of evangelical wisdom, that it be always becoming, spiritual, and rational.

Following the wise maxim of a philosopher: either let us keep silence, or say things which are of more value than silence: let circumspection rule, and prudence characterise all our conversations. “But in order to this,” says St. Jerome, “we must weigh well what we are going to say, for the word we utter is as a stone just launched forth: neither the one nor the other can be recalled.” “A word once spoken never returns.”¹⁶⁶166Horat. Epist. xix. b. i. How prudent, therefore, is the advice of St. Bernard to submit our words twice to the test before once giving them expression.

“Let us be prompt to listen and slow to speak.” According to that beautiful comparison of St. Bonaventure, we should be as avaricious of our words as the miser is of his gold; we should be as reluctant to open our mouth as he is to open his purse.

How have we kept all these rules, and how do we intend to keep them in future? If we are wise let us make “a balance for our words,”¹⁶⁷167Eccli. xxviii. 29. and weigh before speaking them. If we have the acquisition of recollection at heart, let us fly, let us conceal ourselves, let us keep silence like Arsenius, because silence and assiduity in remaining in our room are a most efficacious means for obtaining this virtue. “Oh, who will set a guard before my mouth, and a sure seal upon my lips, that my tongue destroy me not;”¹⁶⁸168Eccli. xxii. 23. “who will allure me into solitude, that the Lord may nourish me with the milk of His consolation, and that He may speak to my heart?”

2. The flight of dissipating occupations

But the exact observance of silence does not of itself suffice for the acquisition of recollection: to obtain this virtue another no less efficacious and necessary means is needed, viz., the flight of over-dissipating occupations. p. 181“Of what avails exterior without interior solitude?” asks St. Gregory. “Of what use,” adds Seneca, is a complete “separation from the world, if your heart be stupefied by the noise of its passions?” Such a retreat would only be that of a convict in the galleys, or of the inmate of a prison.

In vain, therefore, do you shut yourself up all day in your room, and observe silence more strictly than a disciple of Pythagoras, if the mind, engrossed with business, is unable to find a moment to bestow a thought on eternity, and is so much the slave of its occupations as to have no leisure to think either of God or of itself.

The distractions with which our life abounds, and which keep our soul exiled from itself, proceed from three sources: 1, the multiplicity of our occupations; 2, an immoderate eagerness to finish them; 3, our anxiety concerning their success. These are so many invincible obstacles to recollection, because the first oppresses the mind, the second dissipates it, and the third injures its peace.

First.—Multiplicity of occupation is an obstacle to interior recollection, which is as common as it is irrational in its motive. In effect, a great number of officious persons are to be found, who aspire to exercise a sort of universal agency, a directing influence, and who consider themselves as the mainspring of every enterprise. There is nothing with which they do not busy themselves, especially if any honour or advantage is likely to accrue to them therefrom. It is neither charity nor zeal, nor a spirit of industry, which actuates them; it is pride, presumption, contempt for the lights of others. They obey an insatiable craving to reserve to themselves a monopoly of the praise and the approbation of others.

“Vain man,” says the Scripture, “meddle not with many matters.”¹⁶⁹169Eccli. xi. 10. It is better to do little and to do it well than to do a great deal and to do it badly. The Spouse of the Canticles acknowledges that she had cause to regret having interfered in the business of others. “The sons of my mother have made me the keeper in the vineyards: my vineyard I have not kept.”¹⁷⁰170Cant. i. 5. Moses did not consider it possible to exercise the cares of government unaided, but, listening to the advice of Jethro, he delegated to him the greater part of the business. We certainly are not more diligent than the Sulamitess, nor more prudent than the legislator of the people of God. Let us, at least, imitate them, and see, by a serious examination, whether there be not some superfluous occupations of which we should rid ourselves.

Let us resign by preference those which bring us most into contact with the world. “No man being a soldier of God,” says the apostle, “entangleth himself with secular business.”¹⁷¹1712 Tim. ii. 4. Let us choose the kind of work to which obedience or reason obliges us, remembering this exhortation of St. Paul to the first Christians: “We entreat you, that you do your own business,”¹⁷²1721 Thess. iv. 11. the business of your perfection, the most excellent as it is the most important of all others, since all others compared with it are useless and but childish amusements.

Secondly.—In accomplishing what is strictly our duty, we must avoid acting with immoderate impetuosity and eagerness. Some give themselves up with so much ardour to whatever is prescribed for them or which pleases them, that it seems as though, like new Atlases, they have to bear up the heavens: they would wish to terminate an affair with one stroke; but so absorbed are p. 183they in it, that they disappear as in an abyss: they identify themselves to such a degree with whatever occupies them, that they become, as it were, the personification of it, and are in some sort all study, music, reading, etc.

It would be impossible to express how detrimental such a fault is: it stifles the inspirations of the Holy Ghost, spoils the purity of the intention, disturbs the peace of the soul, resists grace, robs our actions of their merit and dignity, or, at least, materially diminishes the value of them. “Substance got in haste shall be diminished, but that which by little and little is gathered with the hand shall increase.”¹⁷³173Prov. xiii. 11. But as such eagerness causes us to live in complete forgetfulness of God, we may affirm that of all its effects the most deplorable is the impossibility of practising interior recollection to which it reduces it.

The pious desires of an over-impetuous man, his good resolutions formed during meditation, vanish “as dust that is driven with the whirlwind, and as smoke”¹⁷⁴174Osee xiii. 4. which disappears in the air. When at the close of life this “man of riches” shall resign his laborious task to enter into the repose of eternity, enlightened “by the light from the everlasting hills, he finds nothing in his hands but chaff,”¹⁷⁵175Ps. lxxv. 5. of which the Divine Justice will take possession to deliver it up to the flames, “when the Father of the family shall purge His floor.”¹⁷⁶176Luke iii. 17.

The following are some means of preventing this precipitation in our actions:

1. Before commencing any action, let us propose to ourselves to devote to it, at least for this once, the proper time for doing it, imagining to ourselves that, like Esdras, we hear the voice of our angel guardian: “Do not hurry.”

2. If during the action we perceive that our impetuosity is carrying us away, let us pause, raise our eyes to heaven, and renew our intention and good resolution.

3. But if, notwithstanding this vigilance, we fail to succeed in repressing and moderating our eagerness, let us cease our work for a moment, interrupting, at least for a few minutes, the occupation which is carrying us away. This trifling loss of time is not to be regretted, since the sacrifice we make of it shall be rewarded by an increase of merits.

Nothing is gained by over-haste. This is an oracle of Ecclesiasticus: “The man that laboureth and maketh haste is so much the more in want.”¹⁷⁷177Eccli. xi. 11. What is done precipitately is never well done. Counsel can only be found in a judicious tardiness, and “they that do all things with counsel,” says Solomon, “are ruled by wisdom.”¹⁷⁸178Prov. xiii. 10. “The valiant woman” is eulogised in Scripture, simply because “Counsel presideth over the work of her hands;” that is to say, because she acted with a moderate, prudent, tranquil, and wisely-regulated attention. Let us imitate her, if we desire to merit the same encomiums before God, and to live in peace in the holy solitude of our heart.

Thirdly.—The third obstacle to recollection is an anxious preoccupation concerning the success of our enterprises. Nothing draws us more away from ourselves than this anxiety, consequently there is nothing more opposed to recollection. Those cares, this uneasiness concerning the issue of our affairs, are the thorns of which our Saviour speaks, which smother the good seed, that is to say, holy inspirations; they are “a burning wind, which dries up the fruit”¹⁷⁹179Ezech. xix. 12. of our labour, and spoils p. 184all the merit of our actions. Nevertheless, this defect is so common, even amongst pious people, that they also have often reason to cry out with Antiochus: “Sleep is gone from our eyes, we are fallen away, and our heart is cast down for anxiety.”¹⁸⁰1801 Machab. vi. 10.

It was to teach us how displeasing such preoccupation is to God that our Divine Lord rebuked the sister of Lazarus: “Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and art troubled about many things.”¹⁸¹181Luke x. 41. This faithful soul had to undergo such a correction, despite the purity of her motives, the sanctity of her action, and the exigency of the moment: and yet these are the pretexts we usually allege to justify our disquietudes.

We persuade ourselves that it is for the interests of God and our neighbour that we are solicitous; but the moment we enter seriously into ourselves, and that a ray of divine grace penetrating our heart shows it to us as it really is, then we perceive that it is not the glory of God but our own, not the honour of our state, but our own honour, not the judgment of heaven, but the opinion of men, that causes all our uneasiness and perplexities. Besides, whatever may be the source of our anxiety, we should listen with docility to Jesus Christ, who forbids “solicitude,”¹⁸²182Matt. vi. 34. because “God will provide all,”¹⁸³183Gen. xxii. 8. and will dispose all things wisely for our greater good.

1. Let us free our hearts, therefore, from those cares and fears, and, with Mary, let us choose the better part, by casting ourselves unreservedly into the bosom of Divine Providence. Let us fortify ourselves in a perfect indifference concerning the success of our labours, “and cast all our care on God, for He hath care of us.”¹⁸⁴1841 Peter v. 7. He is omnipotent; He sees all; He loves us with an infinite love; He is able therefore, He knows the business in which we are now engaged, and He desires to co-operate with us, that we may accomplish it for His greater glory and our salvation, which should always be the great and sole motive of everything we do. Another great incentive to our discarding all uneasiness is the remembrance that the Almighty only demands our labour and efforts, without requiring success or fruits.

2. One of the most ordinary causes of our preoccupation is human respect, that pusillanimous and culpable fear of the judgments of men. But we have already pointed out the means of combating this unhappy weakness in the first part of this work (Chap. V., Art. IV.).

We now know the three great obstacles to interior recollection, which are multiplicity of business, an immoderate desire to finish them, and the anxiety we feel regarding their success: let us follow faithfully the advice just given us, for conquering these difficulties, and our occupations, instead of injuring our interior solitude, will increase and enhance its merit.

3. The frequent exercise of the presence of God

Behold the last and principal means of acquiring recollection. To understand its excellence and necessity, it suffices to say that this holy exercise is nothing else but a constant view of faith, an unalterable love, which absorbs us in the thought of the presence of God; and as interior recollection is itself a constant and affectionate attention to the divine presence within us, it is evident that the shortest road to the acquisition of this recollection is frequently to call to mind that God has chosen our soul for His abode.

This holy exercise of the divine presence, by the mere fact that it consists in the knowledge and love of God, is so exalted that the Cherubim possess not and know not any more noble employment. It is the sole occupation of the blessed and of Jesus Christ, the Head of the elect. What do I say? the most holy Trinity, who “inhabiteth light inaccessible,”¹⁸⁵1851 Tim. vi. 16. is altogether occupied in contemplating and loving itself from eternity, and such shall likewise be its one great occupation for everlasting ages. Why, then, should men refuse to begin here below, what it will be so glorious to them to continue for ever in heaven?

What a shame! We confess that we are completely penetrated, enveloped, and animated by the divine essence, as water penetrates a sponge, as air encompasses the earth, as the soul animates the body. We believe that the “ear of this jealous God heareth all things;”¹⁸⁶186Wisd. i. 10. that “His” eye “seeth all things.”¹⁸⁷187Eccli. xxiii. 27. We know that “He is the Lord who searches the heart and proves the reins: who gives to everyone according to his way, and according to the fruit of his devices;”¹⁸⁸188Jerem. xvii. 10. and we live as indifferent to His presence as if “the clouds were His covert and He did not consider our things: as if He judged through a mist, as if this Omnipotent Being could do nothing to us.”¹⁸⁹189Job xxii. 13. O heavens! “God is a witness of our reins, a true searcher of our heart, and a hearer of our tongue.”¹⁹⁰190Wisd. i. 6. He is present and beholds me; with me and governs me; in me and animates me; He hears, feels, speaks, acts with me; He is always labouring for me; He is constantly thinking of me; He is loving me incessantly with a boundless love; and I, vile worm that I am, spend nearly my whole life in forgetfulness of His infinite Majesty, and I recall His presence only to offend Him!

Lord, “whose eyes look into the hearts of men, into the most hidden parts,”¹⁹¹191Eccli. xxiii. 28. is it then possible that I treat Thee as if Thou wert my personal enemy, that I do not even condescend to look at Thee, though Thou art not only constantly close to, but intimately present to me? How, then, do I dare to refuse Thee the proofs of love, which are due to Thee, whilst I squander them on worthless creatures?

O, my soul! thou art the temple wherein God resides, thou art the throne whereon He reposes, and thou ungratefully tirest of His company; thou abandonest Him to seek creatures. Thy memory ought to be another Ark of the Covenant, in which the august image of thy Creator should be preserved intact, and it is but the receptacle of illusions and vain, deceitful imaginations. Thy understanding should be shining as the Golden Candlestick, and brilliant with heavenly fire, fed and preserved by holy thoughts, and it is involved in darkness and forgetfulness of its God. The will should be a living altar, sanctified by the holocaust of holy affections, to burn with the pure flames of divine love; but it is benumbed with spiritual torpor, or if it possess any ardour, it is only in the pursuit of its irregular inclinations. “Who hath ever heard such a thing, and who hath seen the like to this?”¹⁹²192Isaias lxvi. 8. “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib, but Israel hath not known Me.”¹⁹³193Ibid. i. 3. “Thou alone, O faithless soul! hast forgotten God thy Saviour and thy strong helper;”¹⁹⁴194Ibid. xvii. 10. tremble, lest in turn His mercy forget and His justice alone remember thee.

Let us take prompt measures against so terrible a p. 187misfortune; let “us have God in our mind all the days of our life.”¹⁹⁵195Job iv. 6. “Let us think on Him in all our ways, and He will direct our steps.”¹⁹⁶196Prov. iii. 6. Why should we be unmindful of Him? “At all moments we are loaded with His benefits, and the recipients of His favours; consequently, at no time should we be forgetful of His presence.”¹⁹⁷197St. Amb. Of the dignity of human nature.

From these reasonings of St. Ambrose, St. Gregory concludes “that man should remember God oftener than he breathes;” and lastly, St. Bernard tells us that in all our thoughts and actions we should recall God’s presence, and regard all such time as lost in which we fail to remember this Divine Master. For our part, let us resolve to conform our life to what so legitimate a conclusion demands.

The two means of succeeding are: To make each day frequent acts of faith in the presence of God within us. I say acts of faith, for it is better to believe simply in the Divine Presence than to represent the Eternal and Invisible Being under sensible forms, such as a triangle, an eye which beholds all things, etc. Neither do I deem it advisable to represent our Lord Jesus Christ close to or in us: now under the features of a young child, now under the appearance of a man in the perfection of age, now suffering, now glorious. These efforts of the imagination might fatigue our mind, weaken our strength, and prejudice the discharge of our duties.

Such fictions may even be dangerous and subject to illusion, particularly in beginners, who have as yet but little experience in the ways of God; above all, they are contrary to truth, for God being a pure spirit, the Divinity cannot be represented under any corporeal or sensible object; and if it is true that Jesus Christ, the p. 188author of actual and habitual grace, and even of all the blessings we receive, lives in us, as the cause exists in its effects, it is likewise certain that it is only in the Blessed Eucharist that He abides here below, really present in body and soul.

Let us be satisfied with believing simply, with a humble and docile submission of mind, this truth of faith, that the Divinity is intimately present to us, that it fills, pervades, and encompasses our whole existence, according to these words of the apostle, “in Him we live, move, and have our being.”¹⁹⁸198Acts xvii. 28. The conjuring up of fallacious images is a laborious and useless task. A pure and simple adhesion of our understanding to the thought of this Sovereign Being residing and acting in us, as revelation and reason itself teach us, is more beneficial.

This act of faith must be made by us with all the affection of a friend speaking to a friend who is present, but whom the darkness of night hides from view.

2. The holy and salutary exercise of the presence of God does not confine itself to a purely speculative faith, but consists of an interior act, which tends to unite us closely to our Sovereign Good. The “devils” also “believe” in the immensity of God and His supreme dominion over all things, “and they tremble;”¹⁹⁹199James ii. 19. but, in consequence of not loving Him, their belief is unavailing.

It is essential, therefore, not only that our mind firmly believe in the presence of the King of kings within us, but also that our will love Him ardently, and testify that love by short, fervent, and frequent ejaculatory prayers, such as the following: “My Beloved to me and I to Him. What have I in heaven, and what do I desire upon earth beside Him? Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? let Thy will be done and not mine;” or by other similar affections, corresponding to one of the three ways of the spiritual life, and to the wants of our soul.

These holy desires are as “the hair of the neck of the spouse which hath wounded the heart”²⁰⁰200Cant. iv. 9. of the Divine Bridegroom. They are burning darts, swift arrows, impelled with loving violence, and which, forcing a passage athwart the thick clouds of our weakness, penetrate to the throne of the Divinity, and happily wound the heart of the All-Merciful. The habit of these acts merits and obtains for us that spirit of perpetual prayer which the Saviour inculcates: “You ought always to pray and not to faint.”²⁰¹201Luke xviii. 1. This constant and loving remembrance of the Divinity is in itself an excellent prayer, since nothing is more calculated to purify our heart from every stain.

Let us, then, familiarise ourselves with the practice of ejaculatory prayer, and “our conversation shall be in heaven.”²⁰²202Philip. iii. 20. “We shall be fellow-citizens with the saints and domestics of God.”²⁰³203Ephes. ii. 20. We shall be associated to the number of the elect, who unceasingly “see the face of the Lord,” and who bear “His name on their foreheads.”²⁰⁴204Apoc. xxii. 4. Mysterious words, which interpreters explain as the remembrance of the Divinity, and the constant exercise of God’s presence.

There are numbers of books, which contain models of these pious affections, and I have myself collected several examples of this kind in another of my works.²⁰⁵205This work is entitled “Christianus Pie Moriens.”

In order to render them effective, we must observe the following advice: 1. They must be short, springing from the heart rather than the mind, and the offerings of real fervour, not of strained application. The best and p. 189most efficacious are those burning aspirations which the heart, touched by grace, draws from its own depths, and which it expresses in simple, unstudied words.

2. They must neither be too multiplied nor varied, otherwise they would absorb or at least distract the soul.

One or two frequently and fervently reiterated suffice to obtain all that we ask; for which reason it is very useful to refer them to our particular examen, or the resolution we have taken in meditation.

3. We ought to address them to God, not as seated on an inaccessible throne, but as close to us, nay, abiding in the very centre of our heart.

Let us pay assiduous attention to this holy practice of walking constantly in the presence of God, and we shall attain perfection in a very short time, for “it teacheth temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude, which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in life.”²⁰⁶206Wisd. viii. 7.

“Let us look well to the paths of our house,”²⁰⁷207Prov. xxxi. 27. and examine whether we have observed this advice. We must make a firm resolution to follow it faithfully henceforward; and to avoid negligence on this point we must be fully convinced, not merely of its utility, but its absolute necessity for the acquisition of solid virtue; for, as St. Laurence Justinian writes, “a soul desirous to run in the way of perfection must live continually in the presence and intimate familiarity of God.”

From all that has been said in this chapter, it is evident that the observance of silence, the habit of which is acquired by assiduously remaining in our room, triumphs over the exterior obstacles to recollection; that the flight of over-dissipating occupations breaks down the interior p. 190obstacles, and that the exercise of the presence of God ennobles the sentiments of the soul, unites it closely to the heavenly Spouse by the bond of charity, and enriches it with the plenitude of gifts, which spiritual solitude procures: consequently, that an undeviating fidelity in the observance of these three means will speedily obtain for us the holy virtue of recollection.