Blessed Francis was not at all fond of too much self-introspection, or of
the habit of turning an unimportant matter over and over a hundred times in
the mind. He called this pernicious hair-splitting; or, with the Psalmist:
"Spinning spiders' webs."[1] People given to it he used to say are like the
silkworm, which imprisons and entangles itself in its own cocoon. In his
twelfth Conference he speaks further on this subject.
"The soul," he says, "which is wholly bent on pleasing its divine Lover,
has neither desire nor leisure to fall back upon itself. It presses on
continually (or should do so) along the one straight path which has that
love for its aim, not allowing itself to waste its powers in continual
self-inspection for the purpose of seeing what it is doing or if it is
satisfied. Alas! our own satisfactions and consolations do not satisfy God,
they only feed that miserable love and care of ourselves which is quite
apart from God and the thought of Him."
A great deal of time is wasted in these useless considerations which would
be far better employed in doing good works.
By over considering whether we do right, we may actually do wrong.
St. Anthony was once asked how we might know if we prayed properly. "By not
knowing it at all," he answered. He certainly prays well who is so taken up
with God that he does not know he is praying. The traveller who is always
counting his steps will not make much headway.
[Footnote 1: Cf. Ps. lxxxix. 10.]