On Prayer and The Contemplative Life Part 13

Of course, if a man purposely allowed his mind to wander in prayer, he would commit a sin and hinder the fruit of his prayer. Against such S. Augustine says in his _Rule_[215]: "When you pray to G.o.d in Psalms and hymns, entertain your heart with what your lips are reciting." But that distraction of mind which is unintentional does not destroy the fruit of prayer.

Hence S. Basil also says: "But if through the weakness of sinful nature you cannot pray with attention, restrain your imagination as far as you can, and G.o.d will pardon you, inasmuch as it is not from negligence but from weakness that you are unable to occupy yourself with Him as you should."

_Cajetan:_ Does a man satisfy the precept of the Church if, being bound to the recitation of the Divine Office, he sets out with the intention of meditating upon the Divine Goodness or upon the Pa.s.sion of Christ, and thus keeping his mind firmly fixed upon G.o.d? Clearly a man who strives to keep his mind occupied during the whole of the Divine Office with contemplation of and devout affections towards G.o.d and Divine things fully satisfies his obligation. So, too, a man who aims at meditation on the Pa.s.sion of Christ and devout affections on it during the whole Office, undoubtedly satisfies his obligation, for he is making use of a better means for keeping in touch with the Divinity than if he merely dwelt upon the meaning of the words. At the same time, he must be ready to lay this aside if in the course of the Office he finds himself uplifted to Divine things, for at this he must primarily aim. One who so prays, then, must make the Pa.s.sion of Christ a means and not an end; he must, that is, be prepared to ascend thereby, if G.o.d grants it, to Divine things. In short, we may make use of any one of the species of attention enumerated above provided we do not exclude the higher forms.

Thus, for example, if a man feels that it is more suited to his small capacity to aim simply at making no mistakes, and habitually makes use of this form of attention, he must still use it as a means only; he must, that is, be at G.o.d's disposition, for G.o.d may have mercy upon him and grant him, by reason of his dispositions, some better form of attention.

Again, when a person prays for things needful for his support in life he must not be so occupied with the thought of these things as to appear to subordinate Divine things to human, as though prayer was but a means and his daily living the end. We must bear in mind the doctrine laid down above[216]--viz., that _all our prayers should tend to the attainment of grace and glory_. We must occupy ourselves with the thought of eternal glory, or of the glory of the adoption of sons during this life, or with the virtues as means to arriving at our eternal home, and as the adornment of the inhabitants of heaven, and the commencement here of heavenly "conversation"; such things as these must be counted as the highest forms of attention (_on_ 2. 2. 83. 13).

_S. Augustine: Give joy to the soul of Thy servant, for to Thee, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul. For Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild._[217] It seems to me that he calls G.o.d "mild" because He endures all our vagaries, and only awaits our prayers that He may perfect us. And when we offer Him our prayers He accepts them gratefully and hears them.

Neither does He reflect on the careless way in which we pour them out, He even accepts prayers of which we are hardly conscious! For, Brethren, what man is there who would put up with it if a friend of his began a conversation with him, and yet, just when he was ready to reply to what his friend said, should discover that he was paying no attention to him but was saying something to someone else? Or supposing you were to appeal to a judge and were to appoint a place for him to hear your appeal, and then suddenly, while you were talking with him, were to put him aside and begin to gossip with a friend! How long would he put up with you? And yet G.o.d puts up with the hearts of so many who pray to Him and who yet are thinking of other things, even evil things, even wicked things, things hateful to G.o.d; for even to think of unnecessary things is an insult to Him with Whom you have begun to talk. For your prayer is a conversation with G.o.d. When you read, G.o.d speaks to you; when you pray, you speak to G.o.d.... And you may picture G.o.d saying to you: "You forget how often you have stood before Me and have thought of such idle and superfluous things and have so rarely poured out to Me an attentive and definite prayer!" But _Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild_! Thou art sweet, bearing with me! It is from weakness that I slip away! Heal me and I shall stand; strengthen me and I shall be firm! But until Thou dost so, bear with me, for _Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild_ (_Enarr.

in Ps._ lx.x.xv. 7).

_S. Augustine: Praise the Lord, O my soul!_[218] What mean these words, Brethren? Do we not praise the Lord? Do we not sing hymns day by day? Do not our mouths, each according to their measure, sound forth day by day the praises of G.o.d? And what is it we praise? It is a great Thing that we praise, but that wherewith we praise is weak as yet. When does the singer fill up the praises of Him Whom he sings? A man stands and sings before G.o.d, often for a long s.p.a.ce; but oftentimes, whilst his lips move to frame the words of his song, his thoughts fly away to I know not what desires! And so, too, our mind has sometimes been fixed on praising G.o.d in a definite manner, but our soul has flitted away, led hither and thither by divers desires and anxious cares. And then our mind, as though from up above, has looked down upon the soul as it flitted to and fro, and has seemed to turn to it and address its uneasy wanderings--saying to it: _Praise the Lord, O my soul!_ Why art thou anxious about other things than Him? Why busy thyself with the mortal things of earth? And then our soul, as though weighed down and unable to stand firm as it should, replies to our mind: _I will praise the Lord in my life!_ Why does it say _in my life_? Why? Because now I am in my death!

Rouse yourself, then, and say: _Praise the Lord, O my soul!_ And your soul will reply to you: "I praise Him as much as I can, though it is but weakly, in small measure, and with little strength." But why so? Because _while we are in the body we are absent from the Lord_.[219] And why do you thus praise the Lord so imperfectly and with so little fixity of attention? Ask Holy Scripture: _The corruptible body weigheth down the soul, and the earthly_ _habitation presseth down the mind that museth upon many things._[220] O take away, then, my body which weigheth down the soul, and then will I praise the Lord! Take away my earthly habitation which presseth down the mind that museth upon many things, so that, instead of many things I may be occupied with One Thing alone, and may praise the Lord! But as long as I am as I am, I cannot, for I am weighed down! What then? Wilt thou be silent? Wilt thou never perfectly praise the Lord? _I will praise the Lord in my life!_ (_Enarr in Ps._ cxlv. 1).

"My spirit is in anguish within me; my heart within me is troubled. I remembered the days of old, I meditated on all Thy works; I meditated upon the works of Thy hands. I stretched forth my hands to Thee; my soul is as earth without water unto Thee. Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit hath fainted away."[221]

_S. Thomas:_ The fruits of prayer are twofold. For first there is the merit which thereby accrues to a man; and, secondly, there is the spiritual consolation and devotion which is begotten of prayer. And he who does not attend to, or does not understand his prayer, loses that fruit which is spiritual consolation; but we cannot say that he loses that fruit which is merit, for then we should have to say that very many prayers were without merit since a man can hardly say the _Lord's Prayer_ without some distraction of mind. Hence we must rather say that when a person is praying and is sometimes distracted from what he is saying, or--more generally--when a person is occupied with some meritorious work and does not continuously and at every moment reflect that he is doing it for G.o.d, his work does not cease to be meritorious.

And the reason is that in meritorious acts directed to a right end it is not requisite that our intention should be referred to that end at every moment, but the influence of the intention with which we begun persists throughout even though we now and again be distracted in some particular point; and the influence of this initial intention renders the whole body of what we do meritorious unless it be broken off by reason of some contrary affection intruding itself and diverting us from the end we had first in view to some other end contrary to it.

And it must be remembered that there are three kinds of attention. The first is attention to the words we are actually saying; and sometimes this is harmful, for it may hinder devotion. The second is attention to the meaning of the words, and this, too, may be harmful, though not gravely so. The third is attention to the goal of our prayer, and this better and almost necessary (_Commentary on 1 Cor._ xiv. 14).

XIV

Should our Prayers be Long?

It would seem that we ought to pray continuously, for our Lord said: _We ought always to pray and not to faint[222];_ so also S. Paul: _Pray without ceasing_.[223]

But we must notice that when we speak of prayer we can mean either prayer _considered in itself_ or the _cause of prayer_. Now the _cause of prayer_ is the desire of the love of G.o.d; and all prayer ought to spring from this desire which is, indeed, continuous in us, whether actually or virtually, since this desire virtually remains in everything which we do from charity. But we ought to do all things for the glory of G.o.d: _whether you eat or whether you drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of G.o.d_.[224] In this sense, then, prayer ought to be continual. Hence S. Augustine says to Proba: "Therefore by our faith, by our hope, and by our charity, we are always praying, for our desire is continued."

But _prayer considered in itself_ cannot be so continuous; for we must needs be occupied with other things. Hence S. Augustine says in the same place: "At certain intervals, at divers hours and times, we pray to G.o.d in words so that by these outward signs of things we may admonish ourselves, and may learn what progress we have made in this same desire, and may stir ourselves up to increase it."

But the quant.i.ty of a thing has to be determined by its purpose, just as a draught has to be proportioned to the health of the man who takes it.

Consequently it is fitting that prayer should only last so long as it avails to stir up in us this fervour of interior desire. And when it exceeds this measure, and its prolongation only results in weariness, it must not be prolonged further. Hence S. Augustine also says to Proba: "The Brethren in Egypt are said to have had frequent prayers; but they were exceedingly brief, hardly more than eager e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns; and they adopted this method lest, if they prolonged their prayer, that vigilant attention which is requisite for prayer should lose its keen edge and become dulled. And thus they clearly show that this same attention, just as it is not to be forced if it fails to last, so neither is it to be quickly broken off if it does last."

And just as we have to pay attention to this in our private prayers, and have to be guided by our powers of attention, so must we observe the same principles in public prayer where we have to be governed by the people's devotion.

Some, however, argue that our prayers ought not to be continual, thus:

1. Our Lord said[225]: _And when you are praying speak not much_. But it is not easy to see how a man can pray long without "speaking much"; more especially if it is a question of vocal prayer.

But S. Augustine says to Proba: "To prolong our prayer does not involve 'much-speaking.' 'Much-speaking' is one thing; the unceasing desire of the heart is another. Indeed we are told of the Lord Himself that _He pa.s.sed the whole night in the prayer of G.o.d_[226]; and, again, that _being in an agony He prayed the longer_,[227] and this that He might afford us an example." And Augustine adds a little later: "Much speaking in prayer is to be avoided, but not much pet.i.tion, if fervent attention lasts. For 'much-speaking' in prayer means the use of superfluous words when we pray for something necessary; but much pet.i.tion means that with unceasing and devout stirrings of the heart we knock at His door to Whom we pray; and this is often a matter rather of groans than of words, of weeping than of speaking."

2. Further, prayer is but the unfolding of our desires. But our desires are holy in proportion as they are confined to one thing, in accordance with those words of the Psalmist[228]: _One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after._ Whence it would seem to follow that our prayers are acceptable to G.o.d just in proportion to their brevity.

But to prolong our prayer does not mean that we ask for many things, but that our hearts are continuously set upon one object for which we yearn.

3. Once more, it is unlawful for a man to transgress the limits which G.o.d Himself has fixed, especially in matters which touch the Divine worship, according to the words: _Charge the people lest they should have a mind to pa.s.s the limits to see the Lord, and a very great mult.i.tude of them should perish_.[229] But G.o.d Himself has a.s.signed limits to our prayer by inst.i.tuting the _Lord's Prayer_, as is evident from the words: _Thus shalt thou pray_.[230] Hence we ought not to extend our prayer beyond these limits.

But our Lord did not inst.i.tute this prayer with a view to tying us down exclusively to these words when we pray, but to show us that the scope of our prayer should be limited to asking only for the things contained in it, whatever form of words we may use or whatever may be our thoughts.

4. And lastly, with regard to the words of our Lord _that we ought always to pray and not to faint_,[231] and those of S. Paul, _Pray without ceasing_,[232] we must remark that a man prays without ceasing, either because of the unceasing nature of his desire, as we have above explained; or because he does not fail to pray at the appointed times; or because of the effect which his prayer has, whether upon himself--since even when he has finished praying he still remains devout--or upon others, as, for instance, when a man by some kind action induces another to pray for him whereas he himself desists from his prayer.

"Our soul waiteth for the Lord; for He is our helper and protector. For in Him our hearts shall rejoice; and in His Holy Name we have trusted. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we have hoped in Thee."[233]

XV

Is Prayer Meritorious?

On the words of the Psalmist, _My prayer shall be turned into my bosom_,[234] the interlinear Gloss has: "And if it is of no profit to them (for whom it is offered), at least I myself shall not lose my reward." A reward, however, can only be due to merit. Prayer, then, is meritorious.

As we have said above, prayer has, besides the effect of spiritual consolation which it brings with it, a twofold power regarding the future: the power, namely, of meriting, and that of winning favours. But prayer, as indeed every other virtuous act, derives its power of meriting from that root which is charity, and the true and proper object of charity is that Eternal Good, the enjoyment of Which we merit. Now prayer proceeds from charity by means of the virtue of religion whose proper act is prayer; there accompany it, however, certain other virtues which are requisite for a good prayer--namely, faith and humility. For it belongs to the virtue of religion to offer our prayers to G.o.d; while to charity belongs the desire of that the attainment of which we seek in prayer. And faith is necessary as regards G.o.d to Whom we pray; for we must, of course, believe that from Him we can obtain what we ask.

Humility, too, is called for on the part of the pet.i.tioner, for he must acknowledge his own needs. And devotion also is necessary; though this comes under religion of which it is the first act, it conditions all subsequent effects.

And its power of obtaining favours prayer owes to the grace of G.o.d to Whom we pray, and Who, indeed, induces us to pray. Hence S. Augustine says[235]: "He would not urge us to ask unless He were ready to give"; and S. Chrysostom says: "He never refuses His mercies to them who pray, since it is He Who in His loving-kindness stirs them up so that they weary not in prayer."

But some say that prayer cannot be meritorious, thus:

1. Merit proceeds from grace, but prayer precedes grace, since it is precisely by prayer that we win grace: _Your Father from Heaven will give the Good Spirit to them that ask Him_.[236]

But prayer, like any other virtuous act, cannot be meritorious without that grace which makes us pleasing to G.o.d. Yet even that prayer which wins for us the grace which renders us pleasing to G.o.d must proceed from some grace--that is, from some gratuitous gift; for, as S. Augustine says, to pray at all is a gift of G.o.d.[237]

2. Again, prayer cannot be meritorious, for if it were so it would seem natural that prayer should especially merit that for which we actually pray. Yet this is not always the case, for even the prayers of the Saints are often not heard; S. Paul, for example, was not heard when he prayed that the sting of the flesh might be taken away from him.[238]

But we must notice that the merit of our prayers sometimes lies in something quite different from what we beg for. For whereas merit is to be especially referred to the possession of G.o.d, our pet.i.tions in our prayers at times refer directly to other things, as we have pointed out above. Consequently, if what a man asks for will not tend to his ultimate attainment of G.o.d, he does not merit it by his prayer; sometimes, indeed, by asking and desiring such a thing he may lose all merit, as, for example, if a man were to ask of G.o.d something which was sinful and which he could not reverently ask for. Sometimes, however, what he asks for is not necessary for his salvation, nor yet is it clearly opposed to his salvation; and when a man so prays he may by his prayer merit eternal life, but he does not merit to obtain what he actually asks for. Hence S. Augustine says[239]: "He who asks of G.o.d in faith things needful for this life is sometimes mercifully heard and sometimes mercifully not heard.

For the physician knows better than the patient what will avail for the sick man." It was for this reason that Paul was not heard when he asked that the sting of the flesh might be taken away--it was not expedient. But if what a man asks for will help him to the attainment of G.o.d, as being something conducive to his salvation, he will merit it, and that not only by praying for it but also by doing other good works; hence, too, he undoubtedly will obtain what he asks for, but when it is fitting that he should obtain it: "for some things are not refused to us but are deferred, to be given at a fitting time," as S.

Augustine says.[240] Yet even here hindrance may arise if a man does not persevere in asking; hence S. Basil says[241]: "When then you ask and do not receive, this is either because you asked for what you ought not, or because you asked without lively faith, or carelessly, or for what would not profit you, or because you ceased to ask." And since a man cannot, absolutely speaking, merit eternal life for another, nor, in consequence, those things which belong to eternal life, it follows that a man is not always heard when he prays for another. For a man, then, always to obtain what he asks, four conditions must concur: he must ask for himself, for things necessary for salvation; he must ask piously and perseveringly.

3. Lastly, prayer essentially reposes upon faith, as S. James says: _But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering_.[242] But faith is not sufficient for merit, as is evident in the case of those who have faith without charity. Therefore prayer is not meritorious.

But while it is true that prayer rests princ.i.p.ally upon faith, this is not for its power of meriting--for as regards this it rests princ.i.p.ally on charity--but for its power of winning favours; for through faith man knows of the Divine Omnipotence and Mercy whence prayer obtains what it asks.

_S. Augustine:_ Men, then, love different things, and when each one seemeth to have what he loves, he is called happy. But a man is truly happy, not if he has what he loves, but if he loves what ought to be loved. For many become more wretched through having what they love than they were when they lacked it. Miserable enough through loving harmful things, more miserable through having them. And our Merciful G.o.d, when we love amiss, denies us what we love; but sometimes in His anger He grants a man what he loves amiss!... But when we love what G.o.d wishes us to love, then, doubtless, He will give it us. This is That One Thing Which ought to be loved: that we may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of our life! (_Enarr. in Ps._ xxvi.).

_S. Augustine:_ In those tribulations, then, which can both profit us and harm us, we know not what we should pray for as we ought. Yet none the less since they are hard, since they are vexatious, since, too, they are opposed to our sense of our own weakness, mankind with one consent prays that they may be removed from us. But we owe this much devotion to the Lord our G.o.d that, if He refuses to remove them, we should not therefore fancy that we are neglected by Him, but, while bearing these woes with devout patience, we should hope for some greater good, for thus is power perfected in infirmity. Yet to some in their impatience the Lord G.o.d grants in anger what they ask, just as in His mercy He refused it to the Apostle (_Ep._ cx.x.x. _ad Probam_).

"Hear my prayer, O Lord, and my supplication; give ear to my tears. Be not silent: for I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner as all my fathers were. O forgive me, that I may be refreshed; before I go hence, and be no more."[243]