. CHAPTER 22 The Way of Perfection Explains - the meaning of mental prayer. . |
You must know, daughters,
that whether or no
you are practising mental prayer
has nothing to do
with keeping the lips closed.
If, while I am speaking with God,
I have a
clear realization and
full consciousness
that I am doing so,
and
if this is more real to me
than the words I am uttering,
then I am
combining mental and vocal prayer.
When people tell you
that you are speaking with God
by
reciting the Pater Noster and
thinking of worldly things
--well, words fail me.
When you speak,
as it is right for you to do,
with so great a Lord,
it is well
that you should think of
that you should think of
- Who it is that you are addressing,
and
- what you yourself are,
if only that you may speak to Him
with proper respect.
How can you address a king
with the deference due to him, or
how can you know
what ceremonies have to be used
when speaking to a grandee,
unless you are clearly conscious
of the nature of his position and
of yours?
It is
because of this, and
because it is the custom to do so,
that you
must behave respectfully to him, and
must learn what the custom is,
and
not be careless about such things,
or you will be
dismissed as a simpleton and
obtain none of the things you desire.
And furthermore,
unless you are quite conversant with it,
you must
get all necessary information, and
have what you are going to say
written down for you.
It once happened to me,
when I was not accustomed
to addressing aristocrats,
that I had to go
on a matter of urgent business
to see a lady who had to be addressed
as "Your Ladyship". [81]
I was shown that word in writing;
but I am stupid, and
had never used such a term before;
so when I arrived I got it wrong.
So I decided to tell her about it and
she laughed heartily and
told me to be good enough
to use the ordinary form
of polite address, [82] which I did.
How is it, my Lord,
how is it, my Emperor,
that Thou canst suffer this,
Prince of all Creation?
For Thou, my God, art a King without end,
and
Thine is no borrowed Kingdom,
but Thine own, and
it will never pass away.
When the Creed says
"Whose Kingdom shall have no end"
the phrase nearly always
makes me feel particularly happy.
I praise Thee, Lord,
and bless Thee,
and all things praise Thee for ever --
for Thy Kingdom will endure for ever.
Do Thou never allow it
to be thought right, Lord,
for those who
praise Thee and
come to speak with Thee
to do so with their lips alone.
What do you mean, Christians,
when you say
that mental prayer is unnecessary?
Do you understand what you are saying?
I really do not think you can.
And so you want us all to go wrong:
you cannot know
what mental prayer is,
or
how vocal prayers should be said,
or
what is meant by contemplation.
For, if you knew this,
you would not condemn
on the one hand
what you praise
on the other.
Whenever I remember to do so,
I shall always speak
of mental and vocal prayer together, daughters,
so that you may not be alarmed.
I know what such fears lead to, [83]
for I have suffered
a certain number of trials
in this respect, and
so I should be sorry
if anyone were to unsettle you,
for it is very bad for you
to have misgivings
while you are walking on this path.
It is most important
that you should realize
you are making progress;
for if a traveller is told
that he
has taken the wrong road, and
has lost his way,
he begins to wander to and fro
and
the constant search for the right road
tires him,
wastes his time and
delays his arrival.
Who can say
that it is wrong
if, before we begin reciting
the Hours or the Rosary,
we think
- Whom we are going to address,
and
- who we are that are addressing Him,
so that we may do so
in the way we should?
I assure you, sisters,
that if you gave all due attention
to a consideration of these two points
before beginning the vocal prayers
which you are about to say
you would be engaging in mental prayer
for a very long time.
For we cannot
approach a prince and
address him in the same careless way
that we should adopt
in speaking
to a peasant or
to some poor woman like ourselves,
whom we may address
however we like.
The reason we sometimes do so
is to be found
in the humility of this King,
Who, unskilled though I am
in speaking with Him,
does not
refuse to hear me or
forbid me to approach Him, or
command His guards
to throw me out.
For the angels in His presence
know well
that their King is such
that He prefers
the unskilled language
of a humble peasant boy,
knowing that he would say more
if he had more to say,
to the speech
of the wisest and most learned men,
however elegant may be
their arguments,
if these are not accompanied
by humility.
But we must not be unmannerly
because He is good.
If only to show our gratitude to Him
for
enduring our foul odour and
allowing such a one as myself
to come near Him,
it is well that we should try to realize
His purity and His nature.
It is true
that we recognize this at once
when we approach Him,
just as we do
when we visit the lords of the earth.
Once we are told about
their fathers' names and
their incomes and dignities,
there is no more for us
to know about them;
for on earth, one
makes account of persons, and
honours them,
not because of their merits
but because of their possessions.
O miserable world!
Give hearty praise to God, daughters,
that you have left so wretched a place, [84]
where people are honoured,
not for their own selves,
but for what they get
from their tenants and vassals:
if these fail them,
they have no honour left.
It is a curious thing, and
when you go out to recreation together
you should laugh about it,
for it is a good way
of spending your time
to reflect how blindly
people in the world spend theirs.
O Thou our Emperor!
Supreme Power, Supreme Goodness,
Wisdom Itself,
without beginning,
without end and
without measure in Thy works:
infinite are these and incomprehensible,
a fathomless ocean of wonders,
O Beauty [85] containing within Thyself
all beauties.
O Very Strength!
O Very Strength!
God help me!
Would that I could command
all the eloquence of mortals and
all wisdom,
so as to understand,
as far as is possible here below,
that to know nothing is everything,
and
thus to describe some of the many things
on which we may meditate
in order to learn something
of the nature of this our Lord
and Good.
When you approach God, then,
- try [86] to think and realize
Whom you are about to address and
- continue to do so
while you are addressing Him.
If we had a thousand lives,
we should never fully understand
how this Lord merits
that we behave toward Him,
before Whom even the angels tremble.
He orders all things and
He can do all things:
with Him to will is to perform.
It will be right, then, daughters, for us
- to endeavour to rejoice
in these wondrous qualities
of our Spouse and
- to know
Whom we have wedded and
what our lives should be.
Why, God save us,
when a woman in this world
is about to marry,
she knows beforehand
whom she is to marry,
what sort of a person he is and
what property he possesses.
Shall not we, then,
who are already betrothed,
think about our Spouse, [87]
before
we are wedded to Him and
He takes us home to be with Him?
If these thoughts
are not forbidden to those
who are betrothed to men on earth,
how can we be forbidden to discover
- Who this Man is,
- Who is His Father,
- what is the country
to which He will take me,
- what are the riches with which
He promises to endow me,
- what is His rank,
- how I can best make Him happy,
- what I can do
that will give Him pleasure, and
- how I can bring my rank
into line with His.
If a woman is to be happy
in her marriage,
it is just those things
that she is advised to see about,
even though her husband
be a man of very low station.
Shall less respect be paid to Thee,
then, my Spouse,
than to men?
If they think it unfitting to do Thee honour,
let them at least leave Thee
Thy brides,
who are to spend their lives with Thee.
A woman is indeed fortunate in her life
if her husband is so jealous
that he will allow her to speak
with no one but himself;
it would be a pretty pass
if she could not resolve
to give him this pleasure,
for it is reasonable enough
that she should
put up with this and
not wish to converse with anyone else,
since in him she has
all that she can desire.
To understand these truths, my daughters,
is to practise mental prayer.
If you wish
to learn to understand them,
and at the same time
to practise vocal prayer,
well and good.
But do not, I beg you,
address God
while you are thinking of other things,
for to do that
is the result of not understanding
what mental prayer is.
I think I have made this clear.
May the Lord grant us to learn
how to put it into practice.
Amen.
Amen.
____________________________
Foot Notes: [81] This is generally taken as referring to St. Teresa's visit to Dona Luisa de la Cerda in 1562. [82] Lit.: "to call her Honour." The point of this delightfully unaffected reminiscence, omitted in V. and inserted here rather for its attractiveness than for its artistic appropriateness, is that "Your Honour" (Vuestra Merced: now abbreviated to Vd. and used as the third personal pronoun of ordinary polite address) was an expression merely of respect and not of rank: the Saint often uses it, for example, in addressing her confessors. It was as though a peer of the realm were to say "Just call me Sir." [83] For "fears" the original has "things"; but that seems to be the meaning. [84] Lit.: "a thing". [85] Lit.: "a Beauty...itself", as though referring to obras: "works." [86] Lit.: "Yes, approach God, and, in approaching, try." [87] The words "think about our Spouse" appear in no manuscript but were added by Luis de Leon. . |
| . End of Chapter 22 The Way of Perfection . |
