MEDITATION IV The Need of Prayer to Attain Perfection
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Ignatius, of Loyola, Saint and Coppens, Charles
1st Prelude. See the Apostles around Christ, and saying: “Lord teach us to pray” (St. Luke xi, 1).
2nd Prelude. Beg earnestly to become a man of prayer.
POINT I. No perfection is attainable without much fervent prayer. For perfection consists in charity, the love of God, and this love is not natural to man. Men naturally view everything as related to themselves, to their earthly advantages of business, ease, pleasure, honor, etc. Perfection substitutes God for self. This, being altogether supernatural, requires much grace, and the ordinary means to obtain grace is prayer.
Those who enter on the way to perfection must be trained to the pursuit of it. All religious Orders use for this purpose a copious supply of prayer. Our Society in particular has constant recourse to this means: the long retreats, the yearly octiduums, the triduums, the daily meditations, holy masses, holy communions, daily litanies, examinations of conscience, the Divine Office, the beads, visits to the Blessed Sacraments, etc. Most of these exercises are to be continued during life.
By all this prayer we get to realize practically what worldlings know only in theory: God’s love, mercy, majesty, holiness, justice, eternity, providence, etc., His incarnation, the Blessed Sacrament, the power and love of Mary, etc.
POINT II.When are we men of prayer? When we have learned to refer all things explicitly to God. Cardinal Bellarmin points out three degrees of prayer:
1st, Some speak to God, but hear no answer, like the populace in the street crying to a distant king.
2nd, Others receive some token that they are attended to, like men admitted to an audience and allowed to file a petition.
3rd, Others converse with God and He with them; they hear more than they say, and, like courtiers, can approach their Lord frequently. How is it with us? Are we accustomed to turn to God readily, confidently, lovingly? Some have the gift of prayer before they enter the novitiate, some get it during their early years of religious life and ever increase it, some partly lose it amid active duties, some get it at their ordination, some during their third year of probation, while others never acquire it to any great extent. It can be obtained by earnest petition and fidelity in the practice of devout prayer.
POINT III.What difference does it make in a man? He may be a religious, but not a good one unless he becomes a man of prayer; nor is he safe meanwhile. For one cannot lead the life of a fervent and faithful religious unless he possess considerable command over his passions, and he cannot maintain this self-mastery without much good prayer. Yet he may do so without attaining the third degree of prayer. But when he reaches that, he becomes a different man, a special friend of God, enlightened, strengthened, not impeccable, yet pretty safe; a powerful means for the salvation of souls. Such have been all the models proposed by holy Church for our imitation.
POINT IV.What chance have we Jesuits of becoming men of prayer? An excellent chance. The third degree of prayer is a common gift of God in our Society. It is the obvious tendency of our frequent retreats. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius aim directly to produce this fruit, and the Lord has entrusted the direction of them to our Fathers, whose duty it is to give them to priests and the laity, even to members of the most contemplative Orders. Many of our ascetic writers exhibit this gift in a conspicuous degree. Am I a man of prayer? What can I do to improve in this important matter?
Colloquy. Earnest petition for the gift of prayer, and for light and grace to take the proper measures to procure progress.