The Way to Perfection.....in one prayer

Suscipe

St. Ignatius of Loyola

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,

my memory, my understanding,

and my entire will,

All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.

To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.

Give me only your love and your grace,

that is enough for me.

Father Xavier One More Time

The reference to memory involves the purification of the imagination, which I have written into the perfection series.

First of all, stop putting things into your imagination which are evil. Remember, things are either good or bad, there is no neutral in the spiritual life.

Second, use custody of the eyes and ears.

Third, control curiosity and see my posts on this and some reposts.

Fourth, ask God to enter into your memory to purify it and take away images. Images are used by demons to tempt us and remind us of past sins.

Today's Gospel refers to not even committing venial sins, which also feed our imagination as well.

Matthew 5 DR

17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

On Memory Again--Some More Retreat Notes

One of the points of this past weekend's retreat was on the cleansing of the memory and the imagination. I have written on this before on this blog from

Father Xavier talked about the sensitive memory which is the image which one imagines, or what we have seen like on TV and in movies, or in life, which are physical--seen.

One must pray for the grace of forgetfulness of past sins and even temptations.

It helps you not to recall those things which will cause you to sin.

A friend of mine has experienced this as a complete gift; but most of us have to ask for this.

This is the gift of forgetting past sins we have committed so that the demons do not use these memories to tempt us or to discourage us from pursuing virtue.

Someone brought this up after the retreat so I wanted to write about this again from my notes.

St. Ignatius, may I add again, has the prayer, "Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O lord, I return it. All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will. Give me Thy love and thy grace, for this is sufficient for me."

I hate the song, as it trivializes the experience which follows the prayer.

Giving God one's memory is serious business It means He has control over all our memories. Those which are connected to sin can disappear if we really become serious about being detached from that sin. 

Giving God our liberty means that we do not make any decisions outside His Will. We mean it when we say, "Thy will be done." Our liberty may be valid things we can do, but choose not to do as these things are not in the Perfect Will of God.

Our understanding, as Father Xavier noted, is marred by sin, and we must have that purified to that only the truth remains.

Perfection Series VIII Part XV The Intellect and Prayer

Twenty-three years ago in Sherborne, I had this set of dishes!

A holy man told me recently that it is easier for those who have trained the intellect to pray. Those who have had a classical education learned how to think. Most people react to stimuli and do not know how to think.

But, to make a connection between holiness and intellectual acumen was something I had not thought of to the extent that he did. I knew, of course, that the intellect and will were involved in finding and meeting God, but to say that those who actually are gifted in such have an easier time becoming holy, is another step of thought I had not taken.

Honestly, I was surprised by this, as we have been raised in a time where such saints as Gemma Galgani, Bernadette, and little ones like Jacinta have been held up as examples of the simplicity necessary for prayer.

But, what contemporary man has forgotten, is that even some of the so-called "simple" saints had either trained intellects from school and home, or infused knowledge from God.

St. Therese of Lisieux proves to be a case in point. Her education and training of the intellect aided her road to holiness. Most, if not all the priests canonized by St. John Paul II has superb theological studies, and even most of those saints who were martyred and canonized under both the Pope Emeritus and Pope Francis had catechetical training not seen in the West for forty years. In other words, these lay people had rigorous training of the faith.

Raissa's life is unusual because of the extraordinary intellectual gifts both her husband and she were given by God. They came out of that background and ministered to people, were friends with people, who were intellectuals.

That the intellect must be trained, unless a person has natural deficiencies, such as dear St. Joseph Cupertino, is a truism ignored by many Catholics. I partly blame the charismatics for emphasizing experience over intellect, making false oppositions to either prayer or grace, when there are none.

Those Catholics who are caught up in seers and visions do not understand that one must use one's intellect in order to discern truth and error. Discernment is a gift connected to the gifts of wisdom and knowledge we are all given in Confirmation. But, these gifts do no operate in an intellectual vacuum.

The Holy Spirit inspires a person to do things, to act, to pray, to meditate. If one thinks the Holy Spirit pushes one or takes over a person's freedom, one is actually falling into heresy. God inspires and we decide to do or not to do. We are not automatons.

Neither satan nor God takes away our free will and our intellect. This idea. of  "taking over", forms a dangerous paradigm in some lay people's minds. They do not understand that religious efforts as a combination of the intellect, the heart, the soul, the will. Much poor preaching from the pulpit seems to have taught people in the pew that emotions trump the intellect. It is the other way around.

All the gifts of the Holy Spirit inform the intellect. The virtues must be practiced with intellectual consent and awareness. To think that one is like a porridge bowl, completely passive, waiting to be filled from the stove, cannot be the Catholic paradigm for either grace or gifts.

Raissa writes something which I have repeated on this blog many times.

Pay attention!

She writes, Be attentive to divine impressions. Be attentive to all the movements of my heart.

Notice, this call to attention involves both the intellect and the heart. One is "attentive" in the mind. Then, one becomes attentive to the heart. Attention is an intellectual act.

One reason the Church is lacking in saints is that too many people chase after mushy feeling rather than real love. The Love of God takes decision, willing. As many of you who read this blog know, one of my repeated phrases is that "love is in the will".

And, to become a contemplative, takes discipline of the mind and the heart. Here is Raissa again:

Vocation of the contemplative. He must be still – cease all occupation. And see. See God in the eternal present. See him face to face, although under the veil of faith....The apostle has to live in the eternal future.

This seeing of God in the eternal present involves the intellect. The Dark Night of the Soul first cleanses the senses, then the spirit. And, the intellect rests in the spirit. Some saints are given infused knowledge, and at a certain stage, this infusion is to be expected. But, the training of the intellect, sadly neglected by our education systems and many parents, denies a person the way to God which is necessary. Simplicity is not stupidity. Simplicity is not "unthinking". 

Go back and read the posts on the imagination and how we must purify it over and over and over. This purification of memory, understanding and finally, that of the will, takes choice, decision, a honing of the intellect.

Our Church, as I wrote last week and right after the Synod, is not served by anti-intellectualism.

Raissa admits that she had to spend years in purifying the intellect. I understand this. As a poet and writer, God gave me the ability to use images and to be extremely observant in the world. In contemplative prayer, one must move away from images, which serve meditation, but not contemplation. This purification is part of my own Dark Night of the spirit. One cannot be silent before God with an over-active imagination, but only, only the intellect can deal with this, in grace and through grace.

Remember the posts on Thomas Merton's brilliant insight into the evil of television?  Without a strong intellect, one cannot properly deal with the bombardment of images, good or bad, in this hyperactive world. Even to get on the bus in order to attend daily Mass and Adoration demands a working of the mind not to become involved with images and people. But, this I must do. And, Raissa managed this balancing act. I pray for the grace to do this.

to be continued...

From Today's Office of Readings LISTEN--Even to India!

Where are the generous hearts? Where are the missionary souls? Why are there not more young men responding to the call? Many souls are lost because men say no to the priesthood and the missions?

The day is coming when we shall not have the freedom to go to the missions. Then, what will be our regret?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Joao_III_Francisco_Xavier.jpg

A letter from St Francis Xavier to St Ignatius

Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel

We have visited the villages of the new converts who accepted the Christian religion a few years ago. No Portuguese live here, the country is so utterly barren and poor. The native Christians have no priests. They know only that they are Christians. There is nobody to say Mass for them; nobody to teach them the Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Commandments of God’s Law.

  I have not stopped since the day I arrived. I conscientiously made the rounds of the villages. I bathed in the sacred waters all the children who had not yet been baptized. This means that I have purified a very large number of children so young that, as the saying goes, they could not tell their right hand from their left. The older children would not let me say my Office or eat or sleep until I taught them one prayer or another. Then I began to understand: “The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

  I could not refuse so devout a request without failing in devotion myself. I taught them, first the confession of faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, then the Apostles’ Creed, the Our Father and Hail Mary. I noticed among them persons of great intelligence. If only someone could educate them in the Christian way of life, I have no doubt that they would make excellent Christians.

  Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians. Again and again I have thought of going round the universities of Europe, especially Paris, and everywhere crying out like a madman, riveting the attention of those with more learning than charity: “What a tragedy: how many souls are being shut out of heaven and falling into hell, thanks to you!”

  I wish they would work as hard at this as they do at their books, and so settle their account with God for their learning and the talents entrusted to them.

  This thought would certainly stir most of them to meditate on spiritual realities, to listen actively to what God is saying to them. They would forget their own desires, their human affairs, and give themselves over entirely to God’s will and his choice. They would cry out with all their heart: Lord, I am here! What do you want me to do? Send me anywhere you like – even to India.

To Listen for Christ in Active Contemplation

If you, dear readers, have ever been in love, you understand this scenario. You go to a large gathering, like the opening of an art show, or a talk, and you know the one you love will be there. You go because you are being true to yourself, and would go whether he or she was going or not going to be there.

Hundreds of people are in the room, talking, moving about, but you are listening, listening for that special voice, the voice of the person you love so much. Now, you almost give up, when, suddenly you hear his or her voice, and see that person out of the corner of your eye across the room. When you hear the voice of the beloved, you experience a thrill of both anticipation and fear. Sometimes, one hears in a peace which passes human understanding. This is the peace of sacrificial love, which expects nothing in return for love. One lets love be love.

If you are a man, you can approach the beloved. If you are a woman, you must wait. Sometimes, the beloved never comes up to you, but you still love, in hope, until the day arrives when no more meetings are possible.

Waiting for God to speak is very much like this scene. One is on a bus, in a restaurant, at a gathering, and suddenly, one hears the Voice of the Beloved. Will He approach you? Will He make you wait? Will He talk to others and yet, know you are waiting to be approached?

Waiting for God is the core of active contemplation. One puts one's self in the position to listen, trying to be as passive and receptive as possible. Sometimes God makes one wait for a long time, until the Word is received in a purity of heart, mind, and soul. That is the essence of the Dark Night.

God's loving attention demands that one sets aside one's reasons for loving and merely loves.

One waits for God. He is, of course, always there, but many times, even for years, hides Himself until one is ready to receive Him as He really is.

And, so I wait, suffering, to hear the Voice of the Beloved, waiting for the scrap of tone, even without seeing. I wait until God decides to reveal Himself in whatever way He so desires. Sometimes I hear Him for an instant, just Him showing me that He is there, and then He is gone. Such is the Dark Night....

Such is the work of active contemplation...such is waiting for God.

Perfection Series VIII Part VI Advanced Prayer

In the last post in this series, I noted that oraison could be called acquired contemplation. This phrase means that the person who is involved in oraison, or acquired contemplation, is entering into the prayer with the will. The person praying takes the initiative.

In the next stage, which is infused contemplation, which Raissa calls recueillement, God takes over and takes the initiative.

But, the French word is more exact than the English in that the position of the soul is in rest, not in activity; that is, a completely passive position.

I am going to bullet point some of the editor's comments, plus Jacques' interpretations, to make this state of prayer more easy to understand. I did write about this in the perfection series on the Unitive State under the name of infused contemplation, but Raissa's words and the comments are simpler to understand.

• Recueillement is a deep interior state
• It is not based on concentration, as in oraison, due to "voluntary effort"
• It is sheer gift from God
• It involves a "quiet absorption" of the soul with a deep activity of unity with God
• Phrases like "mental prayer" do not convey the correct meaning
• One can move in and out of this state through the grace of God daily
• One can stay in this state for minutes or hours depending on God's initiative
• Sometimes it involves deep suffering
• Daily and more than once daily seems to be the call for deepening the relationship with God in recueillement.
• one can move back and forth between oraison and recueillement

I prefer the French terms as liberal nuns and priests, as well as New Age followers, have used the term "mental prayer" and "contemplation" incorrectly.

That Raissa reached such a high level of prayer at such an early age is astounding. Few saints reach this point in their early thirties. 

Again, one does not have to have all the virtues perfected to enter into this prayer, especially oraison, as prayer can aid in the perfection of the virtues, which Raissa, like other mystics, saints, and Doctors of the Church teach is the call of all Catholics. But, one would most likely be through the Dark Night and in the Illuminative State.

I do think that the perfection of the virtues, which happens after purgation, accompanies deeper prayer, such as acquired contemplation and infused contemplation. Raissa says the same thing. She compares one working on the perfection of the virtues without contemplation like expecting a plant to have leaves and fruit without soil. However, I doubt whether the Unitive State happens until the virtues are perfected. Recueillement is a sign of the Illuminative State and the beginning of the
Unitive State. 

Back to her later today...

There are other posts on prayer...just follow the tags.

to be continued..

Repost, as I am still here

Sometimes, it is difficult to smile at Him

Posted by Supertradmum

Years ago, the woman who stood up in my wedding as matron of honor told me to “transcend difficulties”. I had to do this, as circumstances forced me to do so.  This great lady was almost my mother’s age, but a good friend of mine. She had been raised in India, in the Raj. Her father died early. Then, she and her mother came back to London to live. She had to leave her mom and live on a farm, as she was young enough to be sent out of harm’s way during the Blitz of London. Later, she married a wonderful man, but only had two children.

She and her husband took care of her mother until that old woman died. Her mother never learned to cook, or sew, or clean, as when she grew up, she had seventeen servants and lived in the luxury of the English in India. My friend had to pay for all her mother’s many needs.  As a person with many hardships to bear, my friend knew how to “transcend” trials. She was “self-possessed”; that is, she had control over her emotions, mind, soul. She was a peaceful woman. Another friend of mine is the same way. She is in her nineties and had an extremely hard life, living with a husband who was ill all their married life. She, too, was and is, “self-possessed”, able to transcend all types of difficulties.

This type of transcendence and self-control only comes with humility and prayer. There is a reality about people who live transcendently. Garrigou-Lagrange writes that we must become closer to God daily in simplicity of heart, “…without which there can be no contemplation of God and no true love.”

What does he mean by this? The death of the ego is the beginning of this emptying of the heart. Egotism must go, must, as I have written many times on this blog.

If we are “too full of ourselves”, there is no room for God. We must not desire attention, or fame, or status, or riches. We must find contentment in what is given to us. We must transcend the trials put on our paths. We need to meditate, and then, to contemplate.

Contemplation is not meditation, again, as I have noted on this blog. Contemplation, whether active, or passive, demands focusing on God Himself, and not on ourselves.

Do we think of ourselves and our problem before Christ in Adoration, or do we immerse ourselves in Him? Do we come with the proverbial laundry list of prayers, or do we just, like Mary of Bethany, sit in His Presence?

Purity of heart, mind, and soul comes with a combination of prayer and sheer gift. Some great saints have these gifts early. Most of us must walk the road of travail and suffering to get to such purity.  We must choose mortification, however, as the given trials may not be enough.

We may not become great saints, few of us will be Padre Pios or Mother Teresas. However, all of us are called to be saints and that means we are all called to purification and perfection.

It is rather ironic that I always  think and sometimes write that “this is my last post on perfection” but I can now see that as I learn and grow, taking the long road through suffering and dying to self.  May God be patient with me. Let me return to Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

My favorite photo of Mother Teresa is not one of her with her beloved dying, or with St. John Paul II, but one of her alone in prayer. Like all saints, like Christ, she needed to be alone with God. Sister Agnes, her helper, said once,“Every day we have Mass, half an hour of meditation, morning prayer, afternoon prayer, and in the evening we have a full hour of Adoration. It would not be possible to work otherwise. There must be a spiritual motive. You can work only for God. You can never work for any man.”

Mother Teresa said, “That is why we begin and end the day with prayer, because, when we pray, we are touching the body of Christ.  You people in the world might not have the time or leisure to pray. It is a beautiful gift of God for us to have that amount of time.”

We must make time. We must.

Mother Teresa also said, “I am not afraid to say I am in love with Jesus because He is everything to me.”

For all Catholics, our work should be for Jesus, and He can be All in All.

Here is the voice of a simple heart. Mother Teresa states that chastity is “undivided love”, that poverty is “freedom”, that total surrender is “obedience”.

“If I belong to God, if I belong to Christ, then He must be able to use me. That is obedience. ….If you really belong to the work that has been entrusted to you, then you must do it with your whole heart.  And you can bring salvation only by being honest and by really working with God. It is not how much we are doing, but how much love, how much honesty, how much faith, is put into doing it. It makes no difference what we are doing. What you are doing, I cannot do, and what I am doing, you cannot do. But all of us are doing what God have given us to do. ….”

And, I love Mother Teresa for saying this-as I have experienced the disrespect which comes to the poor, even from priests, sadly.

“The poor are not respected. People do not think that the poor can be treated as people who are lovable, as people like you and I. You know, the young are beginning to understand. They want to serve with their hands. And to love with their hearts. To the full, not superficially.”

I believe this as I believe that in the remnant will be many young people who have sought and found love.

And, Mother Teresa’s comment about doing the work God has called us to do is also a call to humility. Sometimes people want desperately to do something big for God. But, sometimes, we are called to do something small for God.

I blog. I pray. I do dishes, clean, do laundry, make coffee, take walks. Nothing grand in all of this… but more than that, I love. I am learning daily to live in love, to choose love, to walk, clean, make coffee in love. I blog in love, as that is what God wants me to do right now.

There is nothing to do but to love.

Some of us learn this by loving and being loved by another. Some of us learn this directly from Jesus, the Bridegroom. Either way, love hurts.

“True love hurts. It always has to hurt. It must be painful to love someone, painful to leave them, you might have to die for them. ….A young American couple told me once, ‘You know a lot about love; you must be married.’ And I said, Yes, but sometimes I find it difficult to smile at Him.”

On Memory Again

Father Lehody reminds us in The Ways of Mental Prayer, that all Catholics are called to such prayer, beginning with meditation and moving into contemplation. He reiterates something I have learned the hard-way; that travelling or being in the presence of evil creates a huge need for reparative prayer.

One has to repair the damage dome by long journeys, distractions, dissipations, and times of trial, which all cause losses in reflection and concentrating on God.

Most lay people understand the great need for times of reparative silence. One of Lehody’s pithy sentences “says it all”. Lehody refers to St. Alphonsus Ligouri and St. Philip Neri on this point. Mental prayer is a “moral necessity.” We cannot be perfected in oral prayer, notes St. Philip Neri.

Purity of heart can only be reached through deep and constant reflection on God and not ourselves.

I daily say oral prayers, as I belong to a third order which demands this discipline. But, these prayers, and the daily rosary, are not the meditation or contemplation.  Lehody insists that we cannot confuse difficulties with impossibilities.

He quotes St. Ignatius Loyola is saying that mental prayer is the shortcut to perfection.

I have written on the problems of the matter of sin in the past several months. The matter of sin infects our memories, causing distractions in mental prayer. But, St. Bernard of Clairvaux gives us good advice by writing that we all need a “sentinel”, a “guard” over our memories, just like a porter at the gate.

St. Bernard suggests that this porter of the memory could be either the remembrance of one’s commitment to follow Christ, and/or the remembrance of hell.

I suggest that both are good guardians-the remembrance of our First Love, Christ and our covenant with Him; and the thought of damnation.

The memory, as I note in the long perfection series, must be purified.

 A good reason for not watching t.v. 

No Such Thing as Spiritually Neutral

One of the best things I learned from a spiritual director a long time ago is this truism.

In the spiritual world, there is no such thing as neutrality.

The spiritual world is made up of the good and the bad.

Neutrality is, simply, a convenient lie.

Here is a man sadly caught up in several lies. You can read about him here.

The Catholic Church thankfully clarified for all of us the evils of TM and any type of meditation which omits Christ, as well as other New Age deceits.

Here is one document: Cardinal J. Ratzinger, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation, Oct. 15, 1989

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19891015_meditazione-cristiana_en.html

In this document, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote this:

1. Many Christians today have a keen desire to learn how to experience a deeper and authentic prayer life despite the not inconsiderable difficulties which modern culture places in the way of the need for silence, recollection and meditation. The interest which in recent years has been awakened also among some Christians by forms of meditation associated with some eastern religions and their particular methods of prayer is a significant sign of this need for spiritual recollection and a deep contact with the divine mystery. Nevertheless, faced with this phenomenon, many feel the need for sure criteria of a doctrinal and pastoral character which might allow them to instruct others in prayer, in its numerous manifestations, while remaining faithful to the truth revealed in Jesus, by means of the genuine Tradition of the Church. This present letter seeks to reply to this urgent need, so that in the various particular Churches, the many different forms of prayer, including new ones, may never lose their correct personal and communitarian nature.

In combating the errors of pseudognosticism⁸ the Fathers affirmed that matter is created by God and as such is not evil. Moreover, they maintained that grace, which always has the Holy Spirit as its source is not a good proper to the soul, but must be sought from God as a gift. Consequently, the illumination or superior knowledge of the Spirit ("gnosis"), does not make Christian faith something superfluous. Finally, for the Fathers, the authentic sign of a superior knowledge, the fruit of prayer, is always Christian love.

9. If the perfection of Christian prayer cannot be evaluated using the sublimity of gnostic knowledge as a basis, neither can it be judged by referring to the experience of the divine, as Messalianismproposed.⁹ These false fourth century charismatics identified the grace of the Holy Spirit with the psychological experience of his presence in the soul. In opposing them, the Fathers insisted on the fact that the soul's union with God in prayer is realized in a mysterious way, and in particular through the sacraments of the Church. Moreover, it can even be achieved through experiences of affliction or desolation. Contrary to the view of the Messalians, these are not necessarily a sign that the Spirit has abandoned a soul. Rather, as masters of spirituality have always clearly acknowledged, they may be an authentic participation in the state of abandonment experienced on the cross by Our Lord, who always remains the model and mediator of prayer.¹⁰

10. Both of these forms of error continue to be a temptation for man the sinner. They incite him to try and overcome the distance separating creature from Creator, as though there ought not to be such a distance; to consider the way of Christ on earth, by which he wishes to lead us to the Father, as something now surpassed; to bring down to the level of natural psychology what has been regarded as pure grace, considering it instead as "superior knowledge" or as "experience."

Such erroneous forms, having reappeared in history from time to time on the fringes of the Church's prayer, seem once more to impress many Christians, appealing to them as a kind of remedy, be it psychological or spiritual, or as a quick way of finding God.¹¹

^{and footnotes..............but I suggest reading the entire document.}

12. Pope John Paul II has pointed out to the whole Church the example and the doctrine of St. Teresa of Avila who in her life had to reject the temptation of certain methods which proposed a leaving aside of the humanity of Christ in favor of a vague self-immersion in the abyss of the divinity. In a homily given on November 1st, 1982, he said that the call of Teresa of Jesus advocating a prayer completely centered on Christ "is valid, even in our day, against some methods of prayer which are not inspired by the Gospel and which in practice tend to set Christ aside in preference for a mental void which makes no sense in Christianity. Any method of prayer is valid insofar as it is inspired by Christ and leads to Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf. Jn 14:6)." See:Homilia Abulae habita in honorem Sanctae Teresiae: AAS 75 (1983), 256-257.

1. The expression "eastern methods" is used to refer to methods which are inspired by Hinduism and Buddhism, such as "Zen," "Transcendental Meditation" or "Yoga." Thus it indicates methods of meditation of the non-Christian Far East which today are not infrequently adopted by some Christians also in their meditation. The orientation of the principles and methods contained in this present document is intended to serve as a reference point not just for this problem, but also, in a more general way, for the different forms of prayer practiced nowadays in ecclesial organizations, particularly in associations, movements and groups.

One can also look again at...again, Dominus Iesus.

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/documents/rc_pc_interelg_doc_20030203_new-age_en.html

Power comes either from God, the Trinity, through the Holy Spirit, or from the evil one. Period.

Those who claim that a spiritual world is out there which gives power and is neutral live in self-deception.

more later...

Clarifications on Prayer Part One-The First Four Levels

There are some nuns and priests who are confusing people by using the terminology of prayer incorrectly. I have heard many times a nun who is teaching prayer tell people that they are contemplating, when this level of prayer is only achieved after the Dark Night of the Soul. What she means is meditation, which is not the same as contemplation. Sadly, some of the more liberal nuns and those who are not well taught themselves, cause confusion among the laity with regard to the levels of prayer. I shall review these now.

The prayer of meditation precedes the Dark Night. One must move into that stage of prayer before experiencing the Dark Night. Why? Because unless one is somewhat proficient in meditation, one cannot reflect to the point of understanding the purifications, which are between the person and God. Unless one has had spiritual director for years, one who can tell one the predominant fault, one needs to do this on one's own.

A sign of the movement towards the Dark Night is the movement into regular meditation, as meditation disappears in the Dark Night as indicated on the list of the levels of prayer. The first, the Ascetical, is the Purgative Way.  This stage includes: one, vocal prayer; two. meditation; three. affective prayer; four, acquired recollection. These all precede the Dark Night of the Soul. 

The last two may not be familiar to some readers. Affective prayer is in the will. It is the movement of the mind from meditation, which is intelletual rational discourse and the use of the imagination to prayer based on love of God. However, one must not, and I repeat strongly, must not, seek consolations in this type of prayer. One is willing to love God. If there is a feeling of love, fine, but that is not the goal. The goal is to love God for Himself.

Acquired recollection follows, and this is the attempt of the person to recollect in memory, understanding and will on the attributes of God. This is not without danger, as a person can fall into self-adoration too easily. Acquired recollection is exactly as the name states-it is not infused contemplation. 

It is active, not passive recollection.

Garrigou-Lagrange states this quotation from St. Teresa of Avila:

It is called (active) "recollection," because by its means the soul collects together all the faculties and enters within itself (25) to be with God. The divine Master thus comes more speedily than He otherwise would to teach it and to grant the prayer of quiet. For, being retired within itself, the spirit can meditate on the Passion and can there picture in its thoughts the Son, and can offer Him to the Father without tiring the mind by journeying to find Him on Mount Calvary, or in the garden, or at the column.

Those who are able thus to enclose themselves within the little heaven of their soul where dwells the Creator of both heaven and earth, and who can accustom themselves not to look at anything nor to remain in any place which would preoccupy their exterior senses, may feel sure that they are traveling by an excellent way, and that they will certainly attain to drink of the water from the fountain, for they will journey far in a short time. They resemble a man who goes by sea, and who, if the weather is favorable, gets in a few days to the end of a voyage which would have taken far longer by land. These souls may be said to have already put out to sea, and though they have not quite lost sight of land, still they do their best to get away from it by recollecting their faculties.

If this recollection is genuine it is easily discerned, for it produces a certain effect that I cannot describe, but which will be recognized by those who know it from personal experience. The soul seems to rise from play - for it sees that earthly things are but toys - and therefore mounts to higher things. Like one who retires into a strong fortress to be out of danger, it withdraws the senses from outward things, so thoroughly despising them that involuntarily the eyes close so as to veil from the sight what is visible, in order that the eyes of the soul may see more clearly. Those who practice this prayer almost always keep their eyes shut during it. 

This is an excellent custom for many reasons. . . . The soul appears to gather strength and to dominate itself at the expense of the body. . . .By persevering in the habit [of recollecting itself] for several days, and by controlling ourselves, the benefits that result will become clear. We shall find that when we begin to pray the bees (symbol of the different faculties) will return to the hive and enter it to make the honey without any effort on our part, for our Lord is pleased to reward the soul and the will by this empire over the powers in return for the time spent in restraining them. Thus the mind only requires to make them a sign that it wishes to be recollected, and the senses will immediately obey us and retire within themselves. . . . When the will recalls them they return more quickly, until after they have re-entered a number of times, our Lord is pleased that they should settle entirely in perfect contemplation.(28)

It is only after the Dark Night of the Soul that Contemplation occurs. Do not let any liberal nuns or priests confuse you on this point.

In the next post, I shall continue with Mystical Prayer, which follows the Dark Night.

Just to remind people, the rosary can be meditation, but this type of prayer usually employs the active imagination with Scripture, as taught by St. Ignatius so clearly.

Also, the Liturgy of the Hours, is verbal prayer, as is singing.

to be continued.....

Memory, Understanding and Will

St. Ignatius asks us to pay attention to the process of using memory, moving to understanding, and then employing the will in prayer.

I have written many times on this movement in the perfection series. Just use the labels below. However, this morning, I want to note that the understanding can lead one to more gratitude in one's life.

This process is found in the Psalms of David. David remembers the goodness of the Lord and thinks of all the graces he has received. Then, he understands Who God Is and who he, one of God's beloved creatures, is.

Understanding is the beginning of gratitude. The praises in the Psalms can reflect our gratitude as well. We think of the good things the Lord has done for us and we embrace great thankfulness.

Thanking God for graces becomes part of meditation. It is also part of the Dark Night of the Soul, when God reveals Himself as He really is. The smallness of the human condition and the reality of the fact that we must rely on God alone and not ourselves comes from gratitude. In other words, real humility, bubbling forth from the truth of who we are makes us grateful.

What does one will? This process leads to love. The grateful heart is one which loves God first. Willing love means following God's Will and not one's own. Willing equals the regime of prayer, fasting, worship. and charity.

Memory, understanding and will demand reflection. A half-hour of Scripture reading, one's Lectio Divina, is all that is necessary.

Psalm 8

 Unto the end, for the presses: a psalm of David.

2 O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth! For thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens.

3 Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise, because of thy enemies, that thou mayst destroy the enemy and the avenger.

4 For I will behold thy heavens, the works of thy fingers: the moon and the stars which thou hast founded.

5 What is man that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him?

6 Thou hast made him a little less than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honour:

7 And hast set him over the works of thy hands.

8 Thou hast subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen: moreover the beasts also of the fields.

9 The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea.

10 O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in all the earth

St. Ignatius on Being Holy in Difficult Times

St. Ignatius wrote "Rules for Thinking with The Church" and it is particularly applicable for our times.

A few points can be highlighted here. The first thing, however, I want to note, is that the people of Ignatius's day, and in the days of St. Teresa of Avila, did not have access to Mass and the sacraments as we do now.

People had to strive to be holy with perhaps only Confession once a year and Communion once a month. The problem was a shortage of priests. We need, today, to look at the lives we live in passing up the sacraments when we could go. This is serious. Think of the great saints who did not have the advantages of daily Mass. Even the nuns in Cobh and in London, as they no longer have their own chaplains, only have Confession once every two weeks.

Now. St. Ignatius notes that we should praise both the positive theologians and the Scholastics. He makes the interesting comment that Scholastic Theology is particularly good in difficult times, as it is clear on definitions, which people need in times of chaos and laxity.

The second point I want to emphasize is Ignatius' warning against talking too much about faith and grace.

What a great insight. He notes that talking too much about salvation in faith and grace may create the idea that good works are not necessary. And, again, in difficult times, Ignatius notes that free will and good works must be taught. One can see a pattern of rational discourse informing faith and making people in a particular times more aware of what they need to do.

The last point will shake up some readers. St. Ignatius states this: "Thought the zealous service of God our Lord out of pure love should be esteemed above all, we ought also to praise highly the fear of the Divine Majesty. For not only filial fear but also servile fear is pious and very holy. When nothing higher or more useful is attained, it is very helpful for rising from mortal sin, and once this is accomplished, one may easily advance to filial fear, which is wholly pleasing and agreeable to God our Lord since it is inseparably associated with the love of Him"

When was the last time you heard a sermon on fear of the Lord?

More from The Great Ignatius

St. Ignatius writes about the giving of alms. In doing so, he gives a charming story of SS. Joachim and Anne regarding alms. Ignatius tells us that this holy couple divided their goods into threes. Now, a disclaimer-this is a sweet story and not at all formal teaching. But, the story which Ignatius shares is this. The couple took their wealth and divided into threes One third went to the poor, one to the upkeep of the Temple, and one for their personal needs.

Ignatius writes that all people should use less than they might think they need in order to give alms. and giving more to the poor. Ignatius notes that at our particular judgement, God will judge us primarily as to fulfilling our duties as to our state in life. But, we shall also be judged on alms-giving.

Alms giving is not tithing, which is one of the laws of the Church. We must give something to the upkeep of the Church according the our ability. Some give five percent, some ten. Alms giving is over and above tithing.

SS. Joachim and Anne can be our models in generosity. And, remember, no one has ever outdone God in generosity.

On Temptations

One of two parts....

Re-reading St. Ignatius cleans the cobwebs out of the mind. One point I want to emphasize today is how to overcome temptations. As Father Chad Ripperger and St. Ignatius remind us, the demons watch our every move and listen to us, finding out our weaknesses in order to destroy us.

They cannot read our minds, but they can put ideas into our minds through evil suggestions.

St. Ignatius helps us by reminding us that there are patterns to our temptations. If we pause and reflect on these patterns, we can avoid sin. How can we do this?

When we are being tempted, we should be alert and pay attention to how this temptation proceeds. Even if we do not, gratefully, fall into sin, we should follow the pattern of the temptation. Each one of us is capable of falling away even at the end of our lives.

Let me give some keen and some subtle examples.


An obvious example would be if one is tempted to sin against chastity. If one notices that every time one is with a certain group of friends who talk about their unchaste lives, one is tempted, one must avoid those people and conversations. Or, if one is tempted to impatience and anger, one can avoid being on the Internet and getting into scrapes on line. One can see a pattern.

I was getting impatience at Mass and now I immediately have to check my critical tendencies. Here is what happens.

Two things-first, the Irish do not know how to queue up for Communion, so daily, someone cuts in front of one and so on. Secondly, daily, and I have watched this in several parishes, people do not go back to their same places in the pew after Communion. One goes back to one's place and someone is there. Very odd custom.

So, now, as I saw a pattern of irritation and impatience, I say a little prayer immediately and bless the persons cutting in front and taking my place in the pew. I now know, after so many months, I cannot expect anything different and therefore, just pray a little prayer.

Also, I do not judge the people, but assume they have some sort of feeling which pushes them to act rudely. Maybe they have arthritis or pains or troubles which would make them not go back to their places.

So, I now see a pattern and attack the bad tendencies replacing irritation with understanding, prayer and even resignation.

Subtle temptations are much harder to pinpoint and understand. Subtle temptations are connected to our predominant fault, about which I have written many times. If we know what are main fault is, we can catch the temptations and stop the process which leads to sin.

Satan, as St. Ignatius notes, sometimes tempts us in noisy and violent ways, when one is seriously sinning. But, when one is working on venial sins and imperfections, the temptations become more subtle and quieter.

Again, two examples might help. If one has pride for a predominant fault, one will see a pattern of temptation to interrupt people in discussions or to want to talk about one's self.

If one has vainglory for a predominant fault, one may want to always have new clothes, and follow fashions too much, or shop too much.

Again, the remedies for sin lie is paying attention to the patterns of the temptations.

If one is tempted to pride, let the other people speak more. Be quieter. Wait on others.

As to vainglory, avoid shopping unless absolutely necessary. Avoid malls; do not look at catalogs or websites and so on. If you have friends who shop until they drop, start suggesting other things to do.

The predominant fault is the hardest habitual imperfection one has and the demons know what it is.

All this reflection takes a bit of time and one cannot just be running around doing things all the time. An examination of conscience helps.

To be continued...

Puerilis institutio est mundi renovatio.

We have several "lost generations". I try to reach out to some of the members of those generations. I try to get some of those to examine their lives, as I do mine, daily. I have been given much to share, and without teaching the Truth, the world is not renewed. We can renew our own worlds.

Socrates examined life. He reflected according to his student, Plato. Catholics daily examine their lives, according, perhaps, to St. Ignatius Loyola. The Ratio Studiorum I have mentioned on my previous blog, which was much more into education, as I was still teaching. This Jesuit method goes well with the Socratic method. If you want to look at the Ratio, here it is. I suggest home schooling parents consider it. http://www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/languages/classical/latin/tchmat/pedagogy/rs/rs1.html

Both methods stress thinking skills. Both explore. So does Montessori, my method of home schooling with the Socratic.

Blogging is an exercise in exploration.

I write with people in mind-some who ask me questions. I write to people, not to the air.

Do other bloggers do this?

My posts are mostly like answering questions in my Socratic classrooms I used to moderate.

Teaching is a two-way art-questions and answers. Illumination by asking questions...by exploring, through critical thinking, rational discourse.

You open the questions with me. You and I guide the questions. The questions end by you and I seeing the applications to our personal lives.

Neat. Like good Ignatian spirituality, learning, like holiness, is pragmatic as well as ethereal.

One gets involved objectively in the Truth. But, one cannot be a relativist and enter into the pursuit of Truth seriously. One must want objective Truth.

I am so glad I have the Catholic Church to help me discover the Truth, Who is a Person, daily in reflection, prayer, study.

More on the formation of the child and education

The end of the Society is not only to care for the salvation and perfection of their own souls with divine grace, but with the same [divine grace] seriously to devote themselves to the salvation and perfection of their neighbors. For it was especially instituted for the defense and propagation of the Faith, and the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine. St. Ignatius




Tomorrow, I shall post the Salesian Preventive System and then look at my favourite, the Benedictine system. St. John Bosco's ideals were written in his The Preventive System in the Education of the Young.

There is no right or wrong or even a hierarchy of preferences for these methods. Only, parents involved in home education, or merely looking for good schools, should be aware of these different methods of formation.

Very important for parents would be the discovery of the movements of their own souls towards learning and formation. Too many lay people merely jump from one saint's ideas to the next instead of focussing on a way to approach God, prayer, time, scheduling, the formation of their own souls and those of their children. Talents and temperaments decide on choices.

These methodologies prove to be very different and serve different needs in the families, as well as talents and temperaments.

How interesting it is to meet men who are older than myself, who were raised in a Jesuit or Salesian or Benedictine schools and had real formation.

It shows.

This type of formation has all but disappeared. Home schooling parents benefit from using what has already been developed by these inspired men.

Ignatius
John Bosco
Benedict
and others

If I have time, I shall write about the Ursulines and Dominicans. But, sadly, few of those schools exist which still follow the original methodologies. Again, to preserve these aspects of our Catholic identity, it may be up to home schooling parents to carry on the various visions.

Continuing with the Ignatian Methodology in Education

The development of the student’s intellectual capacity is the school’s most characteristic part. However, this development will be defective and even dangerous unless it is strengthened and completed by the training of the will and the formation of the character. Ratio Studiorum

If you are just shooting for intellectual knowledge and you are not strengthening the will and forming the character at the same time, not only is education defective, but it is capable of being "even dangerous," and possibly extremely so! Education prepares nature to receive and cooperate with Our Lord’s grace. We are instructing the intellect, training the will, and forming the character —in other words, the whole man —based upon serious principles. Father Michael McMahon

Memory and  the analytical go together.

Following the use and strengthening of the Memory is Understanding. Now, understanding anything depends on three things. The first is the introduction of the material and how it is introduced. The second is repetition and examination, and the third is appropriation.

Those who teach anything, including sport, can see this simple plan. The child begins kicking a soccer ball without much understanding of the techniques or even the rules of the game.

Thanks to wiki for the Jesuit Astronomers

Then, skills are learned by practice and imitation. Finally, the appropriation of the skill becomes second nature and the epiphany moment of one's ability connected to the training and discipline create an understanding and creativity regarding the game and the skills.

Understanding must be guided by the teacher, even in Socratic Method, until it is appropriated.

The student who is baptized and learning the life of the virtues finally has the advantage of the graces of Confirmation, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit to help him.
.
(By the way, most Jesuit schools no longer teach the Ratio Studiorum) The Spiritual Excercises came out of St. Ignatius being taught by Christ in much the same way as the development of the Ratio.

Marvellous that some parents have picked this up in home schooling.

The Will is then strengthen through practice and perseverance. The will of each one of us is a precious gift and cannot be taken for granted.

There is an old saying that the parent must break the will of the child, but not the spirit. Much like training a horse on a lunge line, the parent has to balance discipline and freedom or creativity.

The books used for all of this are the Classics, of course. You may like to know that when St. Ignatius died, there were 35 colleges in Europe and within 200 years, 800 schools, colleges, and universities. That is not the case today. The peak of Ignatian education is over, and some of the schools are steeped in Liberation Theology.

Here is an interesting list of goals for Jesuits educational institutions, which help show the connection between formation and education. Here is a snippet from a small booklet on some aspects, not all, of Jesuit education.

When Jesuits began their schools, two models were available. One was the medieval university, where students prepared for professions such as law, the clergy, and teaching by studying the sciences, mathematics, logic, philosophy, and theology. The other model was the Renaissance humanistic academy, which had a curriculum based on Greek and Latin poetry, drama, oratory, and history. The goal of the university was the training of the mind through the pursuit of speculative truth; the goal of the humanists was character formation, making students better human beings and civic leaders. Jesuit schools were unique in combining these two educational ideals.

Perhaps the most important reason for the success of the early Jesuit schools was a set of qualities that Jesuits aspired to themselves and which they consciously set out to develop in their students:

• Self-knowledge and discipline,
• Attentiveness to their own experience and to others',
• Trust in God's direction of their lives,
• Respect for intellect and reason as tools for discovering truth,
• Skill in discerning the right course of action,
• A conviction that talents and knowledge were gifts to be used to help others,
• Flexibility and pragmatism in problem solving,
• Large-hearted ambition, and
• A desire to find God working in all things.

These qualities were the product of the distinctive spirituality that the early Jesuits had learned from Ignatius and that Ignatius had learned from his own experience. Jesuits hoped, in turn, to form their students in the same spiritual vision, so that their graduates would be prepared to live meaningful lives as leaders in government, the professions, and the Church.

http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/offices/mission/publications/guide/success.html

Ironically, the institution which published the little booklet with the goals no longer believes in these.

Lofty ideals from Memory, Understanding and Will and parents, you can do this.

The Jesuit philosophy of education is nothing more than the Catholic philosophy of education intimately and inextricably linking scholastic philosophy and the dogmatic teachings of the Church, that is, reason and religion, St. Thomas and the Magisterium. Paramount is the proper understanding of human nature as created by Almighty God and the ultimate destiny of man.

Man is not merely a citizen of this or that country; he is born to be a citizen of heaven. Therefore, in all truth, we can say that the purpose of education is a preparation for life, proximately this life, but ultimately everlasting life. That is why the Jesuits educate, why we educate. And we’re here to learn the principles necessary to fulfill that end. The glory of our role as priests and our specific vocation as educators is just that; we have the opportunity to form young souls. That is something that principals and teachers need to meditate on constantly; it should be their daily concern. We are intimately involved in the formation of citizens for heaven, souls made for the Beatific Vision. And that can never be over-emphasized.

Therefore, we are not talking about intellectualism. Education is not just intellectual formation nor instruction; it is the formation of the whole man. It is interesting to note that formal religion classes in most of the Jesuit schools never were never given more than two hours a week. Instead, the Jesuits strove to have religion permeate everything. They thought it somewhat odd or superficial to make religion a course all by itself, or to devote many, many hours to it sheerly because their teachers were religious. Unlike the Jesuits, we don’t have only priests or religious brothers teaching. We must make sure we staff our faculties with the right kind of teacher, not just someone who knows math or history, but a Catholic man in the state of grace and striving for sanctity so that religion permeates his class, whatever the subject. This is critical, because religion is not just a class at a certain time; religion is everything. Fr. Michael McMahon

Teacher and Teaching by Fr. Richard Tierney, S.J. 

True education is generally the work of skillful teachers. Since the former is a pearl without price [true education], the value of the latter can scarcely be overestimated. Teaching is the art of the interesting, the inspiring (p.27).

Before he can teach men, or mold teachers of men, or even conceive the first idea of legislating for the intellectual world, he must, himself, first learn. There are two fundamental lessons which he does learn, and they go to form him: one is that, among all the pursuits, the study of virtue is supreme. The other is that, supreme as virtue is, without secular learning, the highest virtue goes unarmed, and at best is profitable to oneself alone (p. 15). Fr. Thomas Hughes, Loyola and the Education of the Jesuits. 

McMahon. Hughes, and Tierney quotations, as well as the above from the Ratio in this post are at  http://www.edocere.org/articles/jesuit_model_education.htm

To be continued.....

Education and Formation of the Child Part One

Many years ago, I studied, taught, did teacher training, and gave talks on Liberal Education, the Trivium and Quadrivium, as well as the Catholic methods or approaches of education. I shall share the latter with you on this blog per request of a reader.

When I did home schooling, and when I taught Socratic Method and the Classics, I used a paradigm based on Benedictine educational paradigms, which I shall save to last.

The primary reason for presenting these ideals is to show that a home schooling family needs to choose a way which suits them both practically and spiritually. A religious or philosophical approach to education must be present in order to unify coursework, the day, the entire formation of the child.

That is the main point. Education is NOT about stuffing information into a child in order for him to pass exams.

Education has several goals, and the normative child, to use a Montessori phrase, learns these goals. Let me share those first.

Maria Montessori developed, by watching and through inspiration, the list of character building goals for a parent raising a child and for a teacher. Now, the advantage of the baptized Catholic is that a parent can help form with life of the virtues with the grace given in baptism and the sacraments.  Incrementally, the child grows both spiritually and in maturity.

The virtues are connected to the levels of maturity and to character building.

For example, patience is learned through tasks and chores.

Obedience and humility are learned through submission to learning.

Fortitude, or perseverance, is learned by sticking to tasks and overcoming obstacles.

Knowledge is a combination of study and infused knowledge through the graces.

And so on...

Here are the list of pre-school goals in formation. The awareness in the child towards these goals starts around age three.


(1) a love of order; 
(2) a love of work; 
(3) love of silence and working alone; 
(4) mutual aid and cooperation; 
(5) profound spontaneous concentration; 
(6) obedience; 
(7) independence and initiative; 
(8) spontaneous self-discipline;
 (9) attachment to reality; 
(10) sublimation of the possessive instinct; and 
(11) joy

I have witnessed young children achieve these goals in a very short time with the help of parents.

I myself experienced these goals because of two excellent teachers in kindergarten and first grade, as well as an observant. 

Notice how these goals fit into the growth of the virtues. Notice also, how these fit into a Benedictine paradigm, as well as the Jesuit methodology.

To start with the Jesuit methodology, one can read the entire Ratio Studiorum texts online. but that is not necessary. I do recommend the link below for more information, however.

http://www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/languages/classical/latin/tchmat/pedagogy/schw/schw1.html

The pragmatic approach of the Jesuits is based on Memory, Understanding and Will.

First of all, Memory. The child is capable of tremendous memorizing and picks up knowledge quickly. One can see this even in the youngest Millennials, who know all the statistics of Barcelona Football, or the intricacies of games. Most parents and teachers underestimate the value of memorizing. The Jesuit method gives great emphasis on details, especially in literature and history, realizing that the training of the mind in such things as reading and grammar lead to greater skills.

I am going to highlight points here.. The Jesuits had this phrase: "Tantum scimus quantum memoria retinemus." This means that boyhood is the best time for memorizing. And, it is. The parts of the classics are copied out exactly, and one could use, for example, The Hobbit, and have a 9 or 10 year old copy out paragraphs exactly by hand in order to learn excellent English. Rhetoric, or the art of speaking, can also be learned in this way.

Memory is also important in the reading of Scripture, the Catechism, and prayers. Memory follows the teacher's presentation, or praelectio.  The classics, especially age appropriate, but challenging, are explained and

presented. 
Jesuit teaching is NOT Socratic Method, but much more directive. 
Self-motivation takes over by the internal reward of learning, which does not take that long. An average child can learn poetry, grammar, syntax from one selection in a week, easily. Two characteristics of this type of learning is competition and modelling, or emulation. Positive feedback for work well-done is part of this method. Sadly, most Ignatian institutions no longer follow the strict regime of the Ratio Studiorum. I shall continue in the next post on the Understanding and the Will.