Mental Prayer
by Fr. William Most
Chapter 21 of "Our Father's Plan", by Fr.
William Most
published by Christendom College Press.
[#.] = ENDNOTES
Prayer in general seeks direct contact or union with
God in mind and will. We have already considered liturgical
prayer, in chapter 11, and have stressed the essential
part of it, the interior participation, while also saying
that exterior participation is objectively very good,
even though without the interior it is worthless. The
importance and value of liturgical prayer comes from
the fact that it is the prayer of Christ, or, the whole
Christ, Head and members. Sacrosanctum concilium [1]
But we must not think that since liturgical prayer has
this excellence, we could neglect other prayer, especially
mental prayer. As we pointed out in other connections,
if someone would eat only the one food element that is
the best, he would incur deficiency diseases. So too,
to limit oneself to liturgical prayer would result in
a great loss.
Further, any kind of prayer without the support of mortification
and humility would be almost if not entirely devoid of
value. St. Jane de Chantal points out that there is even
danger of delusion:
"A person to whom God gives
[special or high ] graces at prayer, should give good
heed to accompany them with true mortification and humility
...: if they do not, the graces will not last, or are
nothing but illusions." [2]
This sound advice is
especially needed today, when some are trying to reach
advanced stages of prayer almost solely by means of special
techniques, without the needed accompanying spiritual
development-often because they follow that false spirituality,
already discussed, which denies any value in self-imposed
mortification; or else they are taken in by the false "angel
of light" (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:14) who deludes them with
a false concept of love of neighbor.
So we intend in this chapter to first review the chief
time-tested means of mental prayer, and then to consider
also some more recent proposals.
To set the stage for any mental prayer, it is highly
desirable to first try to recall the fact that we are,
even though we are not always aware of it, in the presence
of God our Father. If we could live in the constant realization
of that presence, what a difference it would make in
our lives! This leads logically to the thought of who
we are and who He is-let us recall our earlier considerations
on His Infinite Majesty. The great St. Teresa of Avila,
even after receiving so many extraordinary favors, still
liked to refer to Him as "His Majesty". This
attitude is really adoration, and is most basic. If we
find our thoughts and hearts occupied well with this
adoration, there is really no need to move on to any
further stages of mental prayer-for this is in itself
enormously valuable spiritually and pleasing to our Father.
This same thought naturally leads us to pray for light
and help to pray well (if we do not mind using that word "help",
which, as we saw in chapter 18, is really too weak an
expression: it tends to imply we are the chief doers,
with God only as a sort of side-line assistant! This
is the opposite of the real situation).
Then, realizing our own weakness and insufficiency,
we also ask for the help of our Blessed Mother. We ask
her to come with her perfect adoration, to supplement
our deficient dispositions.
There are many ways to go forward after this point—for
there are great individual differences in our response
to grace.
Formal method is a rather new thing in the history of
the Church. This does not mean there was no meditation
in earlier times. There definitely was, but it was not
so formal, and often would come in connection with thoughtful
reading of the Scriptures privately.
Some will be attracted to very methodical procedure;
others will not. The important thing is to try for union
of our minds (including imagination) and wills (including
even feelings, with the qualifications we saw in chapter
17) with God. Whatever method helps a given person at
given time will be good for that person.
One way is what is called discursive meditation. Most
people will find a good spiritual book almost necessary
at this point. They will read until they find some thought
that impresses them. Then they pause either to soak it
in, as it were, or to develop it, almost as if they are
reasoning with themselves, somewhat as one might do in
giving a sermon to another. Further, it is very good
to intersperse-or put at the end of the period- attempts
at free conversational prayer with our Father, with Jesus,
or with Mary, or even with other Saints. This conversation
may be purely mental, or even vocalized. In general,
people at an early stage find this less easy than the
mental part of the prayer. but there are great individual
differences here, as elsewhere. Some too like to compare
themselves with an ideal they have seen in their reading,
in a sort of self-examination- which readily leads into
a prayer of regret for not doing too well, and a petition
for help to do better in the future.
When one spot in the reading has been exhausted, some
will reread it, and try to use it all over again. Others
will go on to find another passage that helps them, and
so on, for the full period they have chosen for meditation.
At each such point, of course, the various supplementary
things we have mentioned above will still apply.
As their book, some will use Holy Scripture, especially
the Gospels. Those who have a stronger imagination might
like to pass the entire scene through their minds. Some
can even picture themselves taking part in the episode,
even making remarks to the principal actors in it. It
is good too to simply gaze at Our Lord in the scene we
have pictured to ourselves-watching out that this gaze
does not degenerate into mere vagueness or blankness.
Still others may prefer to use some vocal prayer, especially
the Our Father, and to go through it a bit at a time,
dwelling on one phrase or line after another. This too
is a good method, suitable even for more advanced stages
of meditation.
Some find it helpful to have pen and paper at hand.
They may first write out some opening line, without much
idea of what to write next. For some psychological reason
this will often, in some people, lead on to a good development
of an idea, in a process which is basically meditative.
At the end of the meditation, it is very desirable to
add a prayer for help to do better on the matters we
have just considered, and even to form a rather specific
resolution to improve in the matters we have considered.
In this first type of meditation, with which most persons
will begin their experience of meditation, the work of
the mind or imagination takes up most of the time and
effort; the use of the will and feelings in colloquy,
free conversational prayer, is apt to be much less. But
there may come-again, souls are different-a period in
which these proportions shift, so that now free conversation
takes up much or most of the meditation period. This
is often called affective meditation.
After these first two stages, discursive and affective,
there may come what is sometimes called the prayer of
simplicity (unfortunately not all authors use this term
in the same way, so care is needed in reading to see
what the author has in mind). It comes only in persons
who are working generously toward making progress in
the love of God, especially by detachment, mortification,
humility. With these must go much habitual recollection,
that is, frequent awareness of the presence of God. The
person too should be working for purity of motive. (cf.
our remarks on submarine motives-in all actions.) Of course,
we do not mean a person must be perfect, but it does
mean solid sustained effort at spiritual growth. If these
preconditions are not present, what might appear to be
the prayer of simplicity is more likely to be an illusion-we
think again of the prudent remark of St. Jane de Chantal
which we saw earlier in this chapter.
The term prayer of simplicity is a very good description.
In affective prayer, the work of the mind and/or imagination
is simplified, (i.e., just one thought may serve as a
basis for the whole meditation period.) But now in the
prayer of simplicity, the work of the will and feelings
and conversational prayer is also simplified. We mean
that a person may take just one suitable thought, along
with a matching attitude of heart, and use it repeatedly
over the entire period, renewing it each time it sinks
down into mere vagueness or reverie, which it does naturally.
For example, one might picture Jesus sitting crowned
with thorns, with spittle on His face, being mocked by
the soldiers. The attitude of heart is simply expressed:
It is because of me-it is for me-I am sorry-any one of
these serves. Or again, one might think of the words
of Psalm 8:
"O Lord, our Lord, how marvelous is
your name in the whole earth!"
Along with this goes
an attitude of adoration, or admiration.
As we said, this prayer begins when the person takes
up one such thought, with matching attitude of heart
or will. How long will this be sustained? Only a rather
short time, perhaps even two minutes. Then it begins
to dissolve into vagueness. As soon as the person notices
this fact, he deliberately recalls the opening thought
and attitude, and can then re-use it for another stretch,
until that too begins to dissolve. So there is a sort
of wave pattern, up and down, for the whole period of
meditation. Yet that one thought and one response serves
over and over for the entire period. [3]
When the prayer of simplicity first appears, the thought
used may be anything at all in the sphere of religious
things. But as time goes on, there will be a tendency-if
the person continues to grow spiritually in general-to
move towards an almost abstract and general thought of
the Divinity. We do not mean that one wants to leave
aside the Sacred Humanity of Jesus. Not at all, but the
soul is still in the process of development. A stage
comes when the thought of that Humanity cannot be handled
simultaneously with the next emerging stage. Later it
will return, most fruitfully. We will see more of this
in the next chapter.
During this phase bits of infused light are apt to appear-on
which we will say more later. Such light may strike abruptly
at any time, even outside the time of formal prayer.
It often consists in a deep realization-not just a feeling-of
the nothingness of creatures as compared to the things
of eternity. In this light St. Paul told the Philippians
(Philippians 3:8) that compared to Christ, everything in this world
seemed like so much "dung." St. Teresa of Avila
said things of this life seem like mere toys. [4]
It is obvious that good spiritual reading outside the
time of meditation provides nourishment for meditation.
The importance of meditation is very great. In fact,
Pope Pius XI wrote:
"We must say without reservation
that no other means has the unique efficacy of meditation
and that, as a result, nothing can substitute for it." [5]
Is meditation only for religious and priests? Not at
all. As Pius XI said, nothing else can replace it. No
one who wishes to grow spiritually can afford to neglect
it.
What if one does not have time for it? Long periods
are good, but not essential. If only one could take time
out for even five minutes per day, there would be much
fruit. Many people who are busy find that just a slight
nap, only enough to just drift off briefly, refreshes
them greatly to go ahead with their work. Similarly,
even a short meditation can work wonders.
Today there are many proposals of techniques that are
unfamiliar to most people, and are at least in that sense
new. Some of these claim to be revivals of ancient traditions;
others are more clearly new. What are we to think of
them? First, it is good, as usual, to make distinctions.
Especially well known is Transcendental Meditation,
TM. But it is neither transcendental, nor meditation.
Some practitioners attach many Hindu trappings to it,
giving each person a mantra, which is supposed to be
secret, designed for just that person. It is often a
Hindu word. But this seems to be just mystification.
Dr. Herbert Benson, of Harvard University Medical School,
found a group of teachers of TM who were anxious to cooperate.
He checked them carefully, and reported first of all,
that if one leaves off the Hindu trimmings, it is a purely
natural process, which he described, in his book, called
[6] Dr. Benson says it is very valuable for relaxation,
producing measurable effects on mental and even, indirectly,
physical health.
The method, as he describes it, is very simple. One
should sit in a comfortable chair, but not slouching.
If need be, one might relax or let go the tension in
one limb after another. But that is only preliminary.
One begins the "meditation" itself by closing
the eyes. Then the mediator begins to say interiorly,
without vocalizing, the word one. (Dr. Benson picked
this word merely to show that no mystic mantra is needed.)
It is best to say this word with each exhalation of the
breath. All attention is focused on that one word. If
distractions come, as of course they do, they are brushed
aside gently. It often takes about 10 minutes to get
into the state, and it is recommended to stay in it for
another 10 minutes. Best effects come with two such periods
per day. (One may look at a clock just a few times to
check on how long the period is running.)
It is obvious that this is not prayer, but a natural
relaxation technique. Can it be of any use for prayer?
Perhaps it might help develop concentration as a preliminary
to meditation, not as meditation itself, for it essentially
focuses just on an empty word.
At this point we naturally think of what is called Centering
Prayer, especially as promoted by Basil Pennington. [7]
It too calls for two 20 minute periods per day. It opens
with taking a minute or two to quiet down-for this, the
practice of TM could be useful. Then the person thinks
of God dwelling in his depths, using just a single simple
word, perhaps the word Jesus. This word is repeated,
or refocused as needed. If distractions come, one brushes
them gently aside — as in TM — and then returns to the single
word. At the end one should come out of the relaxed state,
by mentally praying the Our Father or some other prayer.
What should we think of this? Two chief comments are
in order. First, if one really does focus on the thought
of God dwelling within the soul, there is a spiritual
content-unlike TM. But one needs to watch out for mere
vagueness, almost blankness, which could come in place
of the thought of God, especially since the repetition
of one word can tend to have a mild hypnotic effect.
Secondly, if all these things are done well, we would
have something similar to the Prayer of Simplicity which
we just described above. But: the repetitions in this
proposed prayer are much closer together than those in
the true Prayer of Simplicity, and further, that Prayer
of Simplicity is not something that just any person can
take to at once. No, there is need of a spiritual deepening,
by much mortification, humility, some degree of habitual
recollection and other things. St. Jane de Chantal's
comment that we quoted at the start of this chapter applies
well here.
In other words, one cannot use mere technique [8] to
substitute for spiritual growth, and get "instant
contemplation," as it were. It is apt to be just
an illusion-even though the one who practices it may
praise it and say it brings deep peace. A feeling of
calm, yes, but it is apt to be the calm of a blankness
that approaches that of TM. As such it can bring no spiritual
growth.
A step farther than what we have just described is proposed
by A. De Mello, in his book Sadhana. [9] He asserts:
Many mystics tell us that, in addition to the mind and
heart . . . we are, all of us, endowed with a mystical
mind and mystical heart, a faculty which makes it possible
for us to know God directly and intuit him in his very
being, though in a dark manner, apart from all thoughts
and concepts and images.... What do I gaze into when
I gaze silently at God? . . . a blank.
Is there such a faculty? Definitely not-though there
is, as we shall see in chapter 22, a lack of image in
infused contemplation that has some small resemblance.
But there is no blankness in infused contemplation, and
it is not something we induce in ourselves, but is given
by God when and as He wills. It lasts normally but a
few minutes. For certain, it is not the act of a third
power of the soul, which can be brought on at will.
Pope John Paul II spoke against such proposals of blankness,
in a homily given at Avila, for the Fourth Centenary
of the death of the great mystic St. Teresa of Avila.
He said that St. Teresa opposed books of her day which
presented contemplation as a vague assimilation into
divinity or thinking about nothing. The Pope added that
her reaction
". . . applies also in our days against
some methods of prayer which . . . practically tend to
rescind from Christ in favor of an empty mental state."
He
said that the contemplation taught and lived by St. Teresa
was not
"a search for subjective and hidden possibilities
through technical methods which are without interior
purification." [10]
This, of course, is precisely
what St. Jane de Chantal observed.
St. Teresa herself comments on proposals to suspend
the intellect in prayer:
In the mystical theology which I began to describe,
the understanding ceases working because God suspends
it.... [if we] presume not to think and to suspend it
ourselves . . . we remain boobs and arid, and attain
neither the one nor the other. [11]
That is, we neither advance towards the state in which
God Himself will suspend the working of the mind in infused
contemplation, nor do we have the fruit of basic meditation.
Finally, we include here a word on the Rosary. We need
not give any proof of the importance of the Rosary-so
many Popes so many times have strongly recommended it.
Vatican II did so implicitly when it wrote:
This most Holy Synod admonishes all the sons of the
Church that the cult, especially the liturgical cult,
of the Blessed Virgin be generously fostered, and that
the practices and exercises of piety, recommended by
the Magisterium of the Church toward her in the course
of centuries, be considered of great importance.
Lumen Gentium [12]
Pope Paul VI, in Christi Matri Rosarii, pointed out
specifically that this general recommendation of Vatican
II included the Rosary. [13]
Our special reason for speaking of the Rosary here is
the fact that it should include meditation on each of
the 15 mysteries.
First, we must notice that we are not asked to be fully
attentive to the meaning of each word of the 50 Hail
Mary's and the 5 Our Father's in the Rosary. No, that
would be beyond human ability, even with the help of
usual actual graces. Rather, the vocal prayers form a
sort of background. Along with those vocal prayers, we
are to meditate on the various mysteries.
This is, of course, difficult, as even some of the Saints
have admitted. Yet it can be done. There are two chief
methods of trying to do it.
One way is to use a set of inserted phrases or lines
between the Hail Mary's, so that the narrative of the
mystery advances a step with each one. Some can do this
on their own; others will find useful one of the several
books designed for this purpose.
Others can make a sort of discursive meditation simultaneously
with the vocal prayers. This, as we said, is not easy.
Yet it is so valuable spiritually that we cannot omit
at least trying to do it. As a means of working into
this, it is good to take a few moments before each of
the decades, to get the meditation started. For some,
this will be in one of the forms of discursive meditation
described earlier in this chapter. Many will moving from
one thought to another, or picture the episode unfolding.
Others will find it easier and better to absorb the main
thought of each mystery.
For example, in the first joyful mystery, one can dwell
on the marvel that God saw fit to take on our nature;
in the second, that He was willing to dwell in the womb
of Mary for nine months-with awareness too, for even
though His physical brain was not yet entirely formed
at the early stages, yet His human soul had a spiritual
intellect which was joined directly to the vision of
God, through which all knowledge was available to Him
(as we saw in chapter 8). In the third mystery we try
to realize He was willing even to be a helpless baby;
in the fourth, we think of His offering Himself to the
cross in the presentation in the Temple, and His Mother's
joining her to His, continuing the acceptance she had
made at the annunciation. In the fifth, we admire His
restraint in not overwhelming the Doctors in the Temple,
and His mysterious way of furthering the spiritual advance
of His parents by His puzzling reply when they found
Him there. With this kind of start, one can more readily
continue during the decade.
Of course, the meditation can develop, as one advances,
into the affective form, or that of the prayer of simplicity.
Some [14] have even suggested that the recitation of the Rosary may cease altogether. We distinguish:
- If infused contemplation comes during the saying of the
Rosary, then the Rosary is put aside for that time; all
vocal prayer needs to be dropped because of what is called
ligature, which we will discuss in the next chapter;
but,
- even if such contemplation does come, the Rosary
can and should be continued outside the brief periods
of infused contemplation.
One's whole spiritual life can be transformed if this
meditation in the Rosary is made habitually and well.
The Rosary or other meditative prayer is essential for
growing union with God
ENDNOTES
- Vatican II, Sacrosanctum concilium (On the Liturgy) #7. Exhortations, Conferences,
and Instructions
- St. Jane
Frances Fremyot de Chantal, , Newman, Westminster,
1947, p. 261.
- Cf. Poulain, op. cite pp. 8-51.
- St. Teresa of Avila, 28
- Pius XI, , September 23, 1950. #47, NCCW Edition.
- Herbert Benson, M.D., , Avon, 1976.
- M. Basil Pennington, , Doubleday, N.Y., 1980, p. 45.
H. Benson has also suggested in his newer, (especially pp.
103-11) that one can add "the faith factor" to
his previous proposals, by using a religious word or
line, such as the Jesus prayer. Cf. comments above on
the ideas of Pennington.
- Cf Benedict J. Groeschel, , Crossroad, N.Y. 1983, p.
104, speaks of "the current vogue to learn methods
of meditation aimed at producing religious experience
apart from the imperatives of moral conversion."
- A. DeMello, Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1978, pp. 25-29.
- Pope John Paul II, Homily at Avila, November 1, 1982, in
The Pope Speaks 28 (1983) pp. 114-15.
- St. Teresa of Avila, 12.5. BAC edition I. p. 660.
- Vatican II, <Lumen Gentium (On the Church)> #67.
- Paul Vl, <Christi Matri Rosarii>, September 15, 1966. AAS 58.748. Pope John XXIII
in his autobiography, Journal of A Soul, translated by D. White,
McGraw-Hill, N.Y. 1964, 1965, p. 315, says that since
1953 he increased his Rosary to 15 decades daily, and
that he continued that even in the busy work of the Papacy.
- Cf A. B. Calkins, "A Point of Arrival, The Rosary
as Contemplative Prayer" in , April, 1987, special
edition, p. 11. Unfortunately, some of the ideas of Sadhana,
cited in note 9 above, seem to appear in part in this
article.
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