I once asked our Blessed Father if it was not better to take one single
point for mental prayer, and to draw from this point one single affection
and resolution, as I thought that by taking three points and deducing from
them very many affections and resolutions great confusion and perplexity
of mind were occasioned. He replied that unity and simplicity in all
things, but especially in spiritual exercises, must always be preferred to
multiplicity and complexity, but that to beginners, and to those little
skilled in this exercise, several points should be proposed so as fully to
occupy their minds.
I enquired whether, supposing that a single point were taken, it would not
be better to dwell likewise upon only one affection and resolution rather
than upon several. He answered that when Spring is richest in flowers, bees
make the least honey, because they are so delighted to flutter from flower
to flower that they do not give themselves time to extract the essence and
spirit of which they form their combs. Drones make a great deal of noise
and produce a very small result. And to the question whether it was not
better often to repeat and dwell upon the same affection and resolution,
rather than to develop and expand it by thinking it out, he replied that we
ought to imitate painters and sculptors, who work by repeating again and
again the strokes of their brush and chisel, and that in order to make a
deep impression on the heart it is often necessary to go over the same
thing many times.
He added that as those sink, who in swimming move their legs and arms too
rapidly, it being necessary to stretch them leisurely and easily, so also
those who are too eager in mental prayer, faint away in their thoughts,
their distracted meditations causing them only pain and dissatisfaction.
I am asked to explain that saying attributed by our Blessed Father to the
great St. Anthony, that he who prays ought to have his mind so fixed upon
God, as even to forget that he is praying. Here is the explanation in our
Saint's own words. He says in one of his Conferences: "The soul must be
kept steadfastly in this path (that, namely, of love and confidence in God)
without allowing it to waste its powers in continually trying to ascertain
what precisely it is doing and whether its work is satisfactory. Alas! our
satisfactions and consolations do not always satisfy God: they only feed
that miserable love and care of ourselves which has to do neither with God
nor with the thought of God. Certainly, children whom our Lord has set
before us as models of the perfection to be aimed at by us are, generally
speaking, especially in the presence of their parents, quite untroubled
about what is to happen. They cling to them without a thought of providing
for themselves. The pleasures their parents procure them they accept in
good faith and enjoy in simplicity, without any curiosity whatever as to
their causes or effects. The love they feel for their parents and their
reliance upon them is all they need. Those whose one desire is to please
the Divine Lover have neither inclination nor leisure to turn back upon
themselves, for their minds tend continually in the direction whither love
carries them."[1]
There is a saying of Tauler's, that holy man who wrote a book on mystic
theology, which our Blessed Francis held in high esteem, and was never
weary of inculcating upon those of his disciples who were anxious to lead a
devout life, or who, having already entered upon it, needed encouragement
to make progress in it. Tauler was asked where he, who was so great a
contemplative, and who held such close and familiar communication with God,
had found God. He answered, "Where I found myself." On being further asked
where he had found himself, he said, "Where I forgot myself in God."
He went on to say, "We must lose ourselves in order to find ourselves in
God, as it is written: _He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that
hateth his life in this--world keepeth it unto life eternal._[2] _No man
can serve two masters, God and mammon._[3] To follow one you must of
necessity quit the other. _There is no fellowship between light and
darkness or between Christ and Belial._[4]
"The two lovers who built, one the City of Jerusalem, the other the City of
Babylon, of whom St. Augustine speaks, have nothing in common. It is the
struggle of Esau and Jacob over again."
[Footnote 1: Conf. xii.]
[Footnote 2: John xii. 25.]
[Footnote 3: St. Matt. 24.]
[Footnote 4: Cor. vi. 14, 15.]