. CHAPTER 30 The Way of Perfection - Describes the importance of understanding what we ask for in prayer. - Treats of these words in the Paternoster: "Sanctificetur nomen tuum, adveniat regnum tuum." [105] "Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come." - Applies them to the Prayer of Quiet, and - Begins the explanation of them. . |
We must now come to
- consider the next petition
in our good Master's prayer,
in which He begins
to entreat His holy Father on our behalf,
and
- see what it is that He entreats,
as it is well that we should know this.
What person, however careless,
who had to address someone of importance,
would not spend time in thinking
how to approach him so as to
please him and
not be considered tedious?
He would also think
what he was going to ask for and
what use he would make of it,
especially if his petition
were for some particular thing,
as our good Jesus tells us
our petitions must be.
This point seems to me very important.
Couldst Thou not, my Lord,
have ended this prayer in a single sentence,
by saying:
"Give us, Father, whatever is good for us"?
For, in addressing One
Who knows everything,
there would seem to be no need
to say any more.
This would have sufficed,
O Eternal Wisdom,
as between Thee and Thy Father.
It was thus
that Thou didst address Him
in the Garden,
telling Him of Thy will and Thy fear,
but leaving Thyself in His hands.
But Thou knowest us, my Lord, and
Thou knowest
that we are not as resigned
as wert Thou
to the will of Thy Father;
we needed, therefore, to be taught
to ask for particular things
so that we should stop for a moment
to think if what we ask of Thee
is good for us, and
if it is not, should not ask for it.
For,
being what we are and
having our free will,
if we do not receive
what we ask for,
we shall not accept
what the Lord gives us.
The gift might be the best one possible--
but we never think
we are rich
unless we actually see money
in our hands.
Oh, God help me!
What is it
that sends our faith to sleep,
so that we cannot realize
how certain we are,
on the one hand, to be punished,
and,
on the other, to be rewarded?
It is for this reason, daughters,
that it is good for you to know
what you are asking for
in the Paternoster,
so that, if the Eternal Father gives it you,
you shall not cast it back in His face.
You must think carefully
if what you are about to ask for
will be good for you;
if it will not,
do not ask for it,
but ask His Majesty to give you light.
For we are blind and
often we have such a loathing
for life-giving food
that we cannot eat it
but prefer what will cause us death--
and what a death:
so terrible and eternal!
Now the good Jesus bids us
say these words,
in which we pray
that this Kingdom may come in us:
"Hallowed be Thy Name,
Thy Kingdom come in us."
Consider now, daughters,
how great is our Master's wisdom.
I am thinking here
of what we are asking
in praying for this kingdom,
and
it is well that we should realize this.
His Majesty,
knowing of
how little we are capable,
saw that,
unless He provided for us
by giving us His Kingdom
here on earth,
we could
neither hallow
nor praise
nor magnify
nor glorify
nor exalt
this holy name of the Eternal Father
in a way befitting it.
The good Jesus, therefore,
places these two petitions
next to each other.
Let us understand
- this thing that we are asking for,
daughters,
and
- how important it is that we should
◦ Pray for it without ceasing and
◦ Do all we can to please Him
◦ Pray for it without ceasing and
◦ Do all we can to please Him
Who will give it us:
it is for that reason
that I want to tell you
what I know about the matter now.
If you do not like the subject,
think out some other meditations
for yourselves,
for our Master will allow us to do this,
provided we submit in all things to
the teaching of the [Holy Roman] Church,
as I do here.
In any case
I shall not give you this book to read
until persons
who understand these matters
have seen it:
so, if there is anything wrong with it,
the reason will be,
not wickedness,
but my imperfect knowledge.
To me, then, it seems
that, of the many joys to be found
in the kingdom of Heaven,
the chief is
that we shall have
no more to do
no more to do
with the things of earth;
for in Heaven we shall have
an intrinsic tranquillity and glory,
a joy in the rejoicings of all,
a perpetual peace, and
a great interior satisfaction
which will come to us
when we see
that all
are hallowing and praising the Lord,
and
are blessing His name, and
that none is offending Him.
For all love Him there and
the soul's one concern is loving Him,
nor can it cease from loving Him
because it knows Him.
And this is how
we should love Him on earth,
though we cannot do so
with the same perfection
nor yet all the time;
still, if we knew Him,
we should love Him very differently
from the way we do now.
It looks as though I were going to say
that we must be angels
to make this petition and
to say our vocal prayers well.
This would indeed be
our Divine Master's wish,
since He bids us make
so sublime a petition.
You may be quite sure
that He never tells us
to ask for impossibilities,
so it must be possible, with God's help,
for a soul
living in that state of exile
to reach such a point,
though not as perfectly as those
who have been freed from this prison,
for we
are making a sea-voyage and
are still on the journey.
But there are times
when we are wearied with travelling
and the Lord grants
our faculties, tranquillity
and
our soul, quiet,
and while they are in that state
He gives us a clear understanding
of the nature of the gifts
He bestows upon those
whom He brings to His Kingdom.
Those to whom,
while they are still on earth,
He grants what we are asking Him for,
receive pledges
which will give them a great hope
of eventually attaining
to a perpetual enjoyment
of what on earth
He only allows them to taste.
you would tell me
If it were not
that I am treating of contemplation,
it would be appropriate,
in writing of this petition,
to say a little about
the beginning of pure contemplation,
which those who experience it
call the Prayer of Quiet;
but, as I have said,
I am discussing vocal prayer here, and
anyone ignorant of the subject might think
that the two had nothing to do
with one another,
though I know this is certainly not true.
Forgive my wanting to speak of it,
for I know there are many people
who
- practise vocal prayer
in the manner already described and
- are raised by God
to the higher kind of contemplation
without
▫ having had any hand
in this themselves or
▫ even knowing how it has happened.
For this reason, daughters,
I attach great importance
to your saying your vocal prayers well.
I know a nun
who could never practise anything
but vocal prayer
but who kept to this
and found she had everything else;
yet if she omitted saying her prayers
her mind wandered so much
that she could not endure it.
May we all practise such mental prayer
as that.
She would say a number of Pater Nosters,
corresponding to the number of times
Our Lord shed His blood,
and on nothing more than these
and a few other prayers
she would spend two or three hours.
She came to me once in great distress,
saying
that she did not know
how to practise mental prayer,
and
that she could not contemplate
but could only say vocal prayers.
She was quite an old woman and
had lived an extremely
good and religious life.
I asked her
what prayers she said, and
from her reply
I saw that,
though keeping to the Paternoster,
she was experiencing pure contemplation,
and
the Lord was raising her
to be with Him in union.
She spent her life so well, too,
that her actions made it clear
she was receiving great favours.
So I
- praised the Lord and
- envied her her vocal prayer.
If this story is true--and it is--
none of you who have had
a bad opinion of contemplatives
can suppose that you will be free
from the risk of becoming like them
if you
- say your vocal prayers
as they should be said and
- keep a pure conscience.
I shall have to say still more about this.
Anyone not wishing to hear it
Anyone not wishing to hear it
may pass it over.
___________
. Foot Notes: [105] "Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come." . |
| . End of Chapter 30 The Way of Perfection . |
