MEDITATION AND REFLECTION.
Meditation and reflection are two words that express two shades of
difference of the same idea. In meditation we consider supernatural
things pertaining to our eternal salvation. The soul maintains
herself with difficulty in the love and practice of virtue without
the help derived from meditation; for when she gives it up, her
fervor in piety grows lax, temptations became more frequent and
obstinate, often followed by humiliating falls.
You are well aware that the real object of the Christian's life upon
earth is to establish God's kingdom in our heart; and this is what
forms the object of the second petition that we address to God every
day in the Lord's prayer; and since the kingdom of God is entirely
interior, as Jesus Christ himself tells us, when He says: _the
kingdom of God is within us,_ we should acquire the habit of
looking for God in our own heart; but in order to find Him there we
must give Him a place in it by meditation and prayer.
The advantages derived from meditation are so numerous and so great,
that it is a matter of surprise why it is not more universally
practised; for the effects that it produces in the souls of those who
are faithful to its practice are so striking that it is easy to
discern a man given to this habit from those who are entire strangers
to its holy influence. Meditation teaches us to know God and ourself;
it lays open to us our faults and vices, their source and fatal
consequences and the arms we should employ to combat them. Finally,
meditation contributes most efficiently to form our minds and purify
our hearts, to fortify the will and develop in us the habit of
reflecting.
The knowledge of God and ourself is such an important factor in the
work of our spiritual perfection that St. Augustin constantly prayed
for it, saying: _"Lord grant that I may know Thee and myself."_
The pagans themselves well understood the advantage of this most
important science, even for the securing of the happiness of this
life; since they had the following words inscribed, as a summary of
all human science, upon the frontispiece of the most celebrated
temple of Greece, _know thou thyself_. But, alas! this knowledge
is as rare as it is necessary; with a mind absorbed by distractions,
and a heart harassed by passions, we flee, so to speak, from God and
from ourselves.
Where is the Christian that knows God? Do you presume that you know
full well what He is, what He has done for you, and what He still
does for you every day? Every moment you receive His gifts: your life
is due to His beneficence and His love, you are carried in the bosom
of His providence as in the arms of your mother, He is continually
preoccupied with your welfare, He has done all, created all things
for your comfort and happiness; for your sake he has become man, to
participate in all the infirmities, weakness and miseries of our
humanity, in order to heal them and console us. Every thing speaks of
Him, and proclaims His holy name to you. All that you see, all that
you hear and feel must recall to your mind some gift of His love, or
some effect of His mercy. All creatures in heaven and on earth are
like so many voices which, mingling in a harmonious concert, sing to
you His praises and publish His mercies.
Do you listen to them? Do they not pass you unperceived like the
flitting zephyrs' leaving no trace to mark their passage. Did you
ever seriously try to render an account of the attributes of God, and
particularly of His goodness and justice? of His goodness to endear
Him to all, and of His justice to make Him be feared by all. Have you
considered well that to know God is to know all, because He is the
Author of all creation possessing in Himself to an infinite degree
all the perfections of His creation?
He who does not labor to obtain a knowledge of God can scarcely
obtain any knowledge of himself. How is it possible for us to know
what we are while we ignore what God is for us and what we owe Him?
Oh, how few there are who know themselves! The first condition
necessary to secure this knowledge, so important and so precious, is
profound humility, which unsparingly reveals the real motive of all
our actions, the uncompromising antagonist of our pride and self-love.
Now it is quite evident that he who does not know God does not
possess this virtue; for how can a man humble himself before a being
that he ignores? At first sight it may seem that there is nothing so
easy as to know one's self,--that this knowledge may be obtained by a
close consideration of the heart's operations; but when we give the
matter sufficient thought the work does not appear to be so easy. And
the number of those who have acquired this knowledge to any noted
degree is so limited that we are forced to infer that a knowledge so
rare must offer great difficulties.
However, there is one thing certain, namely: that this knowledge is
not obtained in the midst of tumult and pleasures, from the
seductions of the world or the distractions of life. It is not by
fleeing one's-self as we would fly an enemy; by concealing with a
complaisant but perfidious veil our defects, to avoid being troubled
by their appearance--always painful to pride; it is not by living a
dreamy life of fiction to which the slaves of the world condemn
themselves with a deplorable obsequiousness; it is not by continually
trying to deceive ourselves and others that we may learn how to know
ourselves; and, just as our knowledge of material things increases by
the frequency of our relations with them--for instance we know
persons better with whom we are intimately acquainted than those with
whom we are comparatively strangers--so, likewise, in order to know
ourselves well, we must live intimately with ourselves, observe
closely and impartially all the movements of our mind and heart,
frequently descending into the depth of our soul, scrupulously
examining our thoughts, desires and actions, sparing no pains to
discern well their source and motives; this latter portion of the
work is, without doubt, the most difficult, since it is the point at
which all the passions unite to deceive us by the most subtle
illusions. The best actions are despoiled of their merit by certain
motives of vanity, often concealed from our own notice.
The motives by which we are actuated are, relative to our actions,
what the eye is relative to our body,--it is the motive that gives
light and brilliancy to our actions. This is the sense in which we
should understand our Lord when He says if our eye be simple our
whole body will be luminous. Now the great light by which we can
clearly see the motives for which we act is meditation.
In the peaceful calm of solitude, and in the silent slumber of the
passions, meditation puts us in presence of ourselves, before our own
eyes, by which we see ourselves as in a true mirror. Meditation
teaches us to judge without prejudice what we have done and to
determine with propriety what we should do, by making the experience
of the past our lamp for the future, and by converting past mistakes
into practical lessons for the present.
The meditative and recollected soul will turn even her shortcomings
to good account; seeing her delinquencies, she clothes herself with
the mantle of humility, she rises with renewed confidence, and shuns
with greater care the occasion of those evils from which she has
suffered; she is rarely taken by surprise, a few moments' reflection
will suffice for her to determine what is to be done under the
circumstances; she is rarely taken in the snare of deception, for she
knows that human nature is weak, vacillating and unreliable, and,
consequently, she keeps herself on her guard.
Considered from this point of view; meditation is particularly
necessary to woman, because, being endowed with a very lively
imagination and a tender heart, she is more exposed to illusions
which, for the most part, spring from those two sources. Moreover,
surrounded as she is, by the seductions of the world; breathing
incessantly the poisoned atmosphere of flattery and adulation; waited
on by men who seek to deceive her; distracted by a multitude of cares
which absorb her soul; lost in a painful detail of trifles; how will
she be able to resist the united action of those trials; if she has
not contracted the salutary habit of frequently conversing with her
own heart by holy meditation and recollection?
The precious habit of meditation makes its influence felt by all the
faculties of the soul. It imparts to the mind the love of solitude,
assurance and confidence to the judgment, consistency to all the
thoughts. It is by reflecting on what we interiorly feel, as well as
on what we exteriorly see, that we enrich our intelligence and
acquire that cheerful alacrity and firmness of purpose so necessary
and precious in the most trying and delicate circumstances of life.
A woman of an irreflective mind becomes an easy prey to her own
impressions; rarely ever seeing things in their true light she is
balloted from one illusion to another, from one error to another; she
believes in every thing, hopes for all that she desires, and desires
all that flatters her. Unable to render an exact account either of
the thoughts of her mind or the movements of her heart, she acts
without aim or motive, governed solely by the caprice of her
imagination or the impulse of whimsical humor; equanimity is
impossible in the midst of such confusion. All this will have a fatal
effect upon her spiritual welfare; for what shocked her some time ago
will now fail to make the slightest impression. The bloom of youth
will soon fade away, leaving to her only confused souvenirs of those
days when, to be happy, it sufficed for her to descend into her own
soul, where she always found peace and consolation.
If you wish to preserve in all their integrity the faculties of your
soul; if you would not have your life ruled by the caprice of the
imagination; contract at an early age the salutary and happy custom
of making your meditation. Set apart a special time for it every day,
let it be practical, having for its object the spiritual progress of
your soul, the sanctification of your life. Lay out in God's presence
what you have to do every day, recall to mind the places, persons and
things that have been to you an occasion of sin, or a help in the
exercise of virtue, in order to avoid the evil accruing from the one
source, and increase the influence arising from the other. Never
recline your head upon your pillow before having rendered an exact
account of the day you have just finished, like the merchant who,
every night, tots up his loss and gain, to see what has been the
result of the day's transactions. The next day, with the double
armour of experience and resolve, you will be better able to avoid
what proved noxious before, as well as to do the good that you had
omitted. By thus acting you will give to your life a sure direction,
a powerful impetus in the accomplishment of all that is worthy of
your glorious destiny.