The two exercises which he especially recommended to his penitents were
interior recollection and ejaculatory aspirations and prayers. By them, he
said, the defects of all other spiritual exercises might be remedied, and
without them those others were saltless, that is, without savour. He called
interior recollection the collecting or gathering up of all the powers of
the soul into the heart, there to hold communion with God, alone with Him,
heart to heart.
This Blessed Francis could do in all places and at all hours without being
hindered by any company or occupations. This recollection of God and of
ourselves was the favourite exercise of the great St. Augustine, who so
often exclaimed: "Lord, let me know Thee, and know myself!" and of the
great St. Francis, who cried out: "Who art Thou, my God and my Lord? and
who am I, poor dust and a worm of the earth?" This frequent looking up to
God and then down upon ourselves keeps us wonderfully to our duties, and
either prevents us from falling, or helps us to raise ourselves quickly
from our falls, as the Psalmist says: _I set the Lord always in my sight:
for He is at my right hand, that I be not moved_.[1]
_Thou hast held me by my right hand; and by Thy will thou hast conducted
me, and with Thy glory Thou hast received me_.[2] He teaches us how to
practise this exercise in his Philothea, where, dealing with the subject of
aspirations or ejaculatory prayers, he says: "In this exercise of spiritual
retreat and ejaculatory prayers lies the great work of devotion. We may
make up for the deficiency of all other prayers, but failure in this can
scarcely ever be repaired. Without it we cannot well lead the contemplative
life, and can only lead the active life very imperfectly; without it repose
is idleness, and labour only vexation. This is why I conjure you to embrace
it with your whole heart, and never to lay it aside."[3]
[Footnote 1: Psalm xv. 8.]
[Footnote 2: Psalm lxxii. 24.]
[Footnote 3: Part ii. c. xii. and xiii.]