Mental prayer

“ In reading, our minds terminate upon a book; in meditation, our intelligence and our heart terminate upon God. Prayer is a vital act of faith and desire, to attain a fuller knowledge of God and a closer union with Him in affection and in resolution—that is, in heart and will.
The first effect of mental prayer is the realisation of the objects of faith—that is, of the world unseen as if it were visible, and of the future as if it were present. To realise is to have a vivid and abiding perception of things unseen as if they were palpable, and things future as if they were already come. ”

“ Thus does a simply mental prayer readily feel, to the soul that possesses the habit of it, a complete substitute for all vocal prayer; and a generally prayerful habit of mind readily appears an improvement upon all conscious acts of prayer. Thus does a general, indeterminate consciousness of Christ’s spirit and presence, easily feel larger and wider, to him who has it, than the apparent contraction of mind and heart involved in devotion to Him pictured in the definite Gospel scenes or localized in His Eucharistic presence. ”

“ Let us offer all our petitions for grace in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, and we shall surely obtain all that we ask. 'Mental prayer,' said a holy soul, 'is the breathing of the soul; as in corporal breathing the air is first inhaled and then exhaled, so in mental prayer the soul first receives light and other grades from God, and then by acts of self-offering and love, it gives itself wholly to Him.'
"Before concluding the meditation, we should make some specified good resolution, appropriate as far as possible to the subject of our meditation. ”

“ Menial prayer is a more appropriate and comprehensive term for that spiritual exercise which is so highly praised and commended by the saints and so conducive to holiness and perfection.
Mental prayer is within the reach of all who earnestly desire their salvation. In order to pray with fruit and without distraction it is most useful and almost necessary to spend some time in meditation or pious reflection on some supernatural truth, and from this fact the whole exercise is often called meditation instead of mental prayer. ”

“ In mental prayer, meditation (the exercise of the intellect) is only a means to the end, which is the elevation of the soul to God — conversation with God. When thinking and reflecting the soul speaks to itself, reasons with itself; in prayer that follows it speaks to God. It is plain that mental prayer or meditation is something more than mere spiritual reading. ”

“ As we can reflect in our own way and with sentiments of love on the persons of our friends and relatives who are far away, as we can think of their qualities of mind and soul, of all they have done or been to us, so in our minds alone, without the use of words, we can think affectionately and interestedly of God and of divine truths; and this is what is meant by mental prayer. ”

“ Why is mental prayer most useful to us? A. Mental prayer is most useful to us because it compels us, while we are engaged in it, to keep our attention fixed on God and His holy laws and to keep our hearts and minds lifted up to Him. ”

“ If we accustom ourselves to recite our vocal prayers in this way, we shall not only make them our own and pray well, but we shall also gradually acquire the habit of making mental prayer, which tends to unite us more closely to God, and, through the practical imitation of our divine Saviour's virtues, to render us conformable to Him. ”

“ The object of mental prayer is not to preach a well prepared and eloquent sermon to yourself: the object is to pray. If one simple thought makes you pray, why distress yourself because you have not other and more elaborate thoughts? If you wanted to reach the top of a roof you would not trouble yourself because your ladder was a short one, provided it was long enough to land you safely on the roof. ”

“ Paul points out to us a special method of prayer for the preservation of chastity in the following words: "In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one." By this shield of faith is meant that the truths of our holy religion, more especially serious meditations upon the four last things, will enable us to conquer the fiercest temptations. If such temptations assail you, and dangers threaten you, have recourse to mental prayer. Place before you as vividly as you can death, judgment, heaven, and hell. ”

“ Although mental prayer, as has been said, is the work of the three supreme faculties of the soul, in regard of that part which is pure spirit, and is called mens, from whence this prayer also is called mental — yet, notwithstanding, the other faculties of the soul which are inferior also aid the exercise of it. ”

“ By what hitherto has been said the ordinary forms that are to be used in mental prayer are explained, which are accommodated to all sorts of persons that desire to treat with Almighty God, though all proceed not after one manner. For some in their prayer have more discourse and less affection; others, on the other hand, content themselves with little discourse, and busy themselves most in affections. ”

“ Another way of practising interior prayer is to take some devout book, read a little in it, and then reflect upon what has been read, and make acts of the will and affections upon it. When the mind grows a little weary, take the book up again, and read a little more, and so on. The same can be done with any vocal prayer, as explained above. In this way we turn vocal prayer into mental.
When the time for ending the meditation is come, it should not be prolonged because the soul is dissatisfied with its success. ”

“ Here we must observe that the spiritual profit derived from Mental Prayer does not consist so much in meditation as in making affections, petitions and resolutions: these are the fruits of meditation. And so after reflecting on some eternal maxim, and after God has spoken to the heart, we ought ourselves to speak to God with the heart, by making affections, or by acts of faith, of thanksgiving, of adoration, humility, and—most of all—of love and of contrition, which is also an act of love. For love is that golden band which unites the soul to God. ”

“ In mental prayer it is very profitable, and perhaps more useful than any other act, to address repeated petitions to God, asking with great humility and unbounded confidence for His graces — such as His light, resignation in adversity, patience, perseverance, etc., but, above all, for the inestimable gift of His holy love. ”

“ So high and sovereign is the exercise of mental prayer, in which we meditate upon the mysteries of our holy faith, and converse familiarly with Almighty God, that the principal master of it can be no other but the Holy Ghost Himself, who, as St. ”

“ This kind of praying engages our undivided hearts, our full consent to be the Lord’s, our whole desires.
God sees to it that when the whole man prays, in turn the whole man shall be blessed. His body [Pg 18] takes in the good of praying, for much praying is done specifically for the body. Food and raiment, health and bodily vigour, come in answer to praying. Clear mental action, right thinking, an enlightened understanding, and safe reasoning powers, come from praying. Divine guidance means God so moving and impressing the mind, that we shall make wise and safe decisions. ”

“ We do not know, we cannot know, what the conditions of our spiritual being are. The state of mind induced by prayer may, in accordance with some mental law, be essential to certain modes of spiritual energy, specially conducive to the highest of all moral or spiritual results: taken in this sense, prayer may ask, not the suspension, but the enactment, of some natural law. ”

“ This prayer is not mental, but of the heart.
It is not a prayer of thought alone, because the mind of man is so limited, that while it is occupied with one thing it cannot be thinking of another. But it is the PRAYER OF THE HEART, which cannot be interrupted by the occupations of the mind. Nothing can interrupt the prayer of the heart but unruly affections; and when once we have tasted of the love of God, it is impossible to find our delight in anything but Himself. ”

“ To pray is to seek God’s Face—is it not? Then if a state of mind could be more or less realized, in which the soul is always conscious of being under God’s Eye, would not that be prayer without ceasing? ”

“ The great prayers of the ages, known of all the worshipers, perhaps repeated by them all together, tie in the individual soul to the great mass of humanity and it moves on, with its fellows, toward salvation as majestically and steadily as great rivers flow. The extempore and silent prayer, not unpremeditated but still the unformed outpouring of the individual heart, gives each man the consciousness of standing naked and alone before his God. ”

“ And such humble yet ardent contact with the spiritual world—opening up to its suggestions our impulses, our reveries, our feelings, our most secret dispositions as well as our mere thoughts-is the essence of prayer, understood in its widest sense. No more than surrender or love can prayer be reduced to "one act." Those who seek to sublimate it into "pure" contemplation are as limited at one end of the scale, as those who reduce it to articulate petition are at the other. ”

“ Pray, pray always; if you pray, you will certainly save your souls; if you do not pray, you will certainly lose them. It is true that many excellent ways of persevering in the grace of God may be recommended to souls; for instance, avoiding occasions of sin, frequenting the sacraments, resisting temptation, listening to sermons, meditating on the eternal truths, etc., all of which are most salutary practices, as every one must admit; but, I ask, of what good are sermons, meditations, and the other means suggested by the masters of the spiritual life, without prayer? ”

“ He puts the desire in our hearts; kindles that desire by His own flame. We simply give lip and voice and heart to His unutterable groanings. Our prayers are taken up by Him and energised and sanctified by His intercession. He prays for us, through us and in us. We pray by Him, through Him and in Him. He puts the prayer in us and we give it utterance and heart.
We always pray according to the will of God when the Holy Spirit helps our praying. He prays through us only “according to the will of God.” If our prayers are not according to the will of God they die in the presence of the Holy Spirit. ”

“ Without unction or heart, they fall like a killing frost on all the graces of worship. Death-dealing prayers they are. Every vestige of devotion has perished under their breath. The more dead they are the longer they grow. A plea for short praying, live praying, real heart praying, praying by the Holy Spirit—direct, specific, ardent, simple, unctuous in the pulpit—is in order. A school to teach preachers how to pray, as God counts praying, would be more beneficial to true piety, true worship, and true preaching than all theological schools. ”

“ The attitude of prayer may, indeed, transform our own lives and make possible for us experiences that would otherwise have been impossible. But our pathetic demands—we shall never know how forlorn and weak they are. Prayer is the opening of the heart to the being we call God—it is most natural and reasonable. If we pray in our weakness and blindness for what we may not have, there is, nevertheless, a wonderful re-creative effect within us. ”

“ Our experiences are little worth unless they teach us to reflect. Let us then pause to consider this hourly experience of human beings—this remarkable efficacy of prayer. There can hardly be a contemplative mind to which, with all its difficulties, the inquiry is not familiar.
To begin with, ‘To pray is to expect a miracle.’ ‘Prayer in its very essence,’ says a thoughtful writer, ‘implies a belief in the possible intervention of a power which is above nature.’ How was it in my case? ”

“ All mechanical mumbling of prayers in our church services is an insult to the Creator, who does not hear prayers which do not come from the heart.
"Prayer is the heart's sincere desire." What we long for and hope for we pray for by our very longing and hope. The real prayer may be struggling in the heart without words, it may be a noble desire, a heart longing which no language can express. It may be voiceless or it may not, but the true prayer always comes from the heart, and it is always answered. ”

“ It is this, the indwelling of God through the Spirit, that alone can explain and enable us to appropriate the wonderful promises given to prayer. God gives the Spirit as a Spirit of Supplication, too, to maintain His Divine life within us as a life out of which prayer ever rises upward.
Without the Holy Spirit no man can call Jesus Lord, or cry, Abba, Father; no man can worship in spirit and truth, or pray without ceasing. ”

“ We may welcome particularly Sir Dyce Duckworth’s emphatic pronouncement about prayer. After all the basis of psychic healing is, and always has been, prayer—whether the means used is oil, or water, or the relics or even the shadow of holy men, as reported in the Acts of the Apostles. The motive power that makes any of these means availing is simply prayer. Prayer, whether spoken, desired, or acted, is the vital force that gives the psychic movement all its validity. ”

“ As long as we measure our power, for praying aright and perseveringly, by what we feel, or think we can accomplish, we shall be discouraged when we hear of how much we ought to pray. But when we quietly believe that, in the midst of all our conscious weakness, the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of supplication is dwelling within us, for the very purpose of enabling us to pray in such manner and measure as God would have us, our hearts will be filled with hope. ”