On Aspirations or Ejaculatory Prayers, and Good Thoughts; the Fourth Exercise.
We retire into God because we aspire unto Him, and we aspire unto Him in order to retire into Him; thus inward retirement and aspiration unto God draw one another on and sustain one another, and both proceed from good thoughts.
Aspire, then, very often unto God, Philothea, by short but fervent outbursts of your heart: admire His beauty; invoke His aid; cast yourself in spirit at the foot of the Cross; adore His mercy; often question Him concerning your salvation; a thousand times a day give Him your soul; fix your eyes upon Him, that you may be penetrated with His sweetness; stretch out your hand to Him, as a little child to its father, that He may guide you; place Him upon your breast like a delightful posy; plant Him in your soul like a sacred standard; in short, give a thousand impulses to your heart, to stir it up to the love of God and to the sweet converse of this heavenly Bridegroom.
It is thus that these ejaculatory prayers are made, which Saint Augustine so earnestly recommended to the devout lady Proba. Be assured, Philothea, that if our spirit grows accustomed in this way to enter into familiar converse with its God, it will soon find itself, as it were, wholly perfumed with His perfections; and this is by no means difficult: for this exercise may very well be intermingled with the affairs and occupations of the world, without their suffering in the least. Indeed, whether in spiritual retirement or in ejaculatory prayers, only a few brief outbursts of the heart are needed; and truly, far from hindering and impeding our action, such an exercise serves only to advance it and greatly aid it. The pilgrim who takes a little wine to gladden his heart and refresh his mouth does indeed pause for a little while, but he does not thereby lose his time; for he takes strength to continue on his way, and pauses only that he may go better.
We retire into God because we aspire unto Him, and we aspire unto Him in order to retire into Him; thus inward retirement and aspiration unto God draw one another on and sustain one another, and both proceed from good thoughts.
Aspire, then, very often unto God, Philothea, by short but fervent outbursts of your heart: admire His beauty; invoke His aid; cast yourself in spirit at the foot of the Cross; adore His mercy; often question Him concerning your salvation; a thousand times a day give Him your soul; fix your eyes upon Him, that you may be penetrated with His sweetness; stretch out your hand to Him, as a little child to its father, that He may guide you; place Him upon your breast like a delightful posy; plant Him in your soul like a sacred standard; in short, give a thousand impulses to your heart, to stir it up to the love of God and to the sweet converse of this heavenly Bridegroom.
It is thus that these ejaculatory prayers are made, which Saint Augustine so earnestly recommended to the devout lady Proba. Be assured, Philothea, that if our spirit grows accustomed in this way to enter into familiar converse with its God, it will soon find itself, as it were, wholly perfumed with His perfections; and this is by no means difficult: for this exercise may very well be intermingled with the affairs and occupations of the world, without their suffering in the least. Indeed, whether in spiritual retirement or in ejaculatory prayers, only a few brief outbursts of the heart are needed; and truly, far from hindering and impeding our action, such an exercise serves only to advance it and greatly aid it. The pilgrim who takes a little wine to gladden his heart and refresh his mouth does indeed pause for a little while, but he does not thereby lose his time; for he takes strength to continue on his way, and pauses only that he may go better.
There are several collections of vocal aspirations which are truly very useful; but, if you will take my advice, you will not bind yourselves to such forms of words, and you will simply utter, from the heart or with the mouth, those which divine love suggests to you on the instant, for it will furnish you with as many as you desire. I acknowledge, however, that there are certain words which have a very particular power to touch the heart, and so you will do very well to make use of them: such are the sacred transports with which the Psalms are filled, the various invocations of the holy name of Jesus, or the ardent words of the Song of Songs. Some spiritual songs may also be used to good purpose, but they must be sung with attention.
When a man is enamoured of a human and natural love, his thoughts are almost always occupied with the person he loves, his heart has affection for no one but her, and his mouth continually praises her; if he is separated from her, he does not fail to write her the tenderest things; and he does not come upon a tree on whose bark he does not engrave her name. In like manner, those who love God cannot cease thinking of Him, breathing for Him, yearning for Him, speaking of Him, and they would, if it were possible, engrave the holy and sacred name of Jesus upon the breast of all men. It even seems that all creatures invite them thereto, and that there is not one which does not proclaim to them the praise of their Beloved. Yes, says Saint Augustine, after Saint Antony, everything in the world speaks to them of Him: the language of nature is indeed a language, but it is nevertheless perfectly intelligible to their love; all things prompt them to good thoughts, and these thoughts, in their turn, furnish them with a thousand good impulses and holy aspirations which raise them up to God. Here are some examples.
When a man is enamoured of a human and natural love, his thoughts are almost always occupied with the person he loves, his heart has affection for no one but her, and his mouth continually praises her; if he is separated from her, he does not fail to write her the tenderest things; and he does not come upon a tree on whose bark he does not engrave her name. In like manner, those who love God cannot cease thinking of Him, breathing for Him, yearning for Him, speaking of Him, and they would, if it were possible, engrave the holy and sacred name of Jesus upon the breast of all men. It even seems that all creatures invite them thereto, and that there is not one which does not proclaim to them the praise of their Beloved. Yes, says Saint Augustine, after Saint Antony, everything in the world speaks to them of Him: the language of nature is indeed a language, but it is nevertheless perfectly intelligible to their love; all things prompt them to good thoughts, and these thoughts, in their turn, furnish them with a thousand good impulses and holy aspirations which raise them up to God. Here are some examples.
Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus, walking one day by the seashore, as he himself related to his people, noticed that the waves, as they advanced upon the beach, left behind shells and little spiral shells, blades of grass, small oysters, and other such trifles, which the sea cast forth from its bosom; and that other waves came afterward to take them up again and sink them beneath the waters, while the rocks around them remained firm and unmoved, although the waves came crashing violently upon them. Thereupon he made this fine reflection: that weak souls, like shells and blades of grass, allow themselves to be carried away, now into affliction, now into consolation, by the ebb and flow of fortune; but that great hearts remain firm and unshaken through every season and against every storm. And from this thought he took occasion to cry out with David: _O Lord! save me, for the waters have reached even unto my soul. O Lord! deliver me from this abyss: I am borne down into the depths of the sea, and the tempest hath overwhelmed me._ Indeed, he was then afflicted by the unhappy usurpation which Maximus sought to make of his see.
Saint Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe, being present at a general assembly of the Roman nobility, presided over by Theodoric, King of the Goths, and seeing the splendor of so many illustrious lords, each seated according to his dignity: “O God,” said he, “how beautiful must the heavenly Jerusalem be, since here below earthly Rome is already so magnificent! And if in this world such great honors are bestowed upon the friends of vanity, what glory shall there not be in the next for the friends of truth!”
Saint Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe, being present at a general assembly of the Roman nobility, presided over by Theodoric, King of the Goths, and seeing the splendor of so many illustrious lords, each seated according to his dignity: “O God,” said he, “how beautiful must the heavenly Jerusalem be, since here below earthly Rome is already so magnificent! And if in this world such great honors are bestowed upon the friends of vanity, what glory shall there not be in the next for the friends of truth!”
It is said that Saint Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, of whom our mountains are proud to have been the birthplace, was admirable in the practice of good thoughts. One day, as he was travelling, a hare, pursued by hounds, ran beneath his horse, there to find refuge from the death that threatened it. The hounds, seeing this, bayed all around, yet dared not approach, as though they feared to violate the sanctuary to which their quarry had fled. So strange a sight made the whole company of hunters laugh heartily; but Saint Anselm, on the contrary, wept and groaned. “You laugh,” he cried, “but the poor creature does not laugh. Ah! Is it not thus that, when a soul has been pursued and driven by a thousand turns into all manner of sins, its enemies await it at the passage of death, to seize upon it and devour it? And if then that poor, distraught soul seeks refuge somewhere and finds none, its enemies mock and laugh at it, and it becomes their prey for ever.” Having said this, he went away sighing.
When Constantine the Great had written a most honourable letter to Saint Anthony, the religious who were gathered around the saint seemed greatly surprised. Whereupon he said these words to them: “Why do you marvel that a king should write to a man? Rather marvel that God wrote His law to men, and even spoke to them by the mouth of His own Son.”
When Constantine the Great had written a most honourable letter to Saint Anthony, the religious who were gathered around the saint seemed greatly surprised. Whereupon he said these words to them: “Why do you marvel that a king should write to a man? Rather marvel that God wrote His law to men, and even spoke to them by the mouth of His own Son.”
Saint Francis, seeing one day a ewe alone in the midst of a flock of horned beasts, said to his companion: “See how gentle this poor little ewe is among these goats. Thus was Our Lord gentle and humble among the Pharisees.” And another time, seeing a little lamb being eaten by a swine, he said, weeping all the while: “Ah, little lamb, how well Thou dost represent the death of my Saviour!”
Francis Borgia, that great and holy personage of our age, being still Duke of Gandia, could not go hunting without making a thousand pious reflections. “I marvelled,” he himself said later, “at the way falcons return to the fist, allow their eyes to be covered, and are fastened to the perch, while men show themselves so deaf and so unyielding to the voice of God.”
The great Saint Basil says that the rose, surrounded by its thorns, gives men this fair instruction: that what is most pleasing in this world, O mortals, is mingled with bitterness and sorrow; nothing here is pure: regret is joined to joy, widowhood to marriage, toil and hardship to the happiness of being a mother, ignominy to glory, expense to honours, weariness to delights, and sickness to health. “The rose is a fair flower,” says this holy personage again, “but it brings me great sadness, by reminding me of sin, for which the earth was condemned to bear briars and thorns.”
Francis Borgia, that great and holy personage of our age, being still Duke of Gandia, could not go hunting without making a thousand pious reflections. “I marvelled,” he himself said later, “at the way falcons return to the fist, allow their eyes to be covered, and are fastened to the perch, while men show themselves so deaf and so unyielding to the voice of God.”
The great Saint Basil says that the rose, surrounded by its thorns, gives men this fair instruction: that what is most pleasing in this world, O mortals, is mingled with bitterness and sorrow; nothing here is pure: regret is joined to joy, widowhood to marriage, toil and hardship to the happiness of being a mother, ignominy to glory, expense to honours, weariness to delights, and sickness to health. “The rose is a fair flower,” says this holy personage again, “but it brings me great sadness, by reminding me of sin, for which the earth was condemned to bear briars and thorns.”
A devout soul, once beholding a fair brook wherein the heavens with their stars were pictured as in a mirror, said: My God! these same stars shall one day be beneath my feet, when Thou shalt have received me into Thy holy tabernacles; and as the stars of heaven are represented upon the earth, so are the men of earth represented in heaven, in the fair and clear fountain of divine charity.
Another, considering the course of a river, said: My soul shall never have rest, until it be engulfed in God, its beginning and its end, as this river is engulfed in the ocean.
Saint Frances, beholding a pleasant brook by whose side she had knelt to pray, was ravished in ecstasy, and repeated these words several times: Behold the image of God’s grace: even so does it flow very gently into hearts.
Another, seeing trees in blossom, said: Alas! must I be the only one who bears no flowers in the garden of the Church? Another, seeing little chicks gathered beneath their mother, began to say: O Lord! preserve us thus beneath the shadow of Thy wings; and another, seeing the sunflower, made this reflection: When shall it be, O my God! that my soul shall thus follow the attractions of Thy grace? Then, noticing those little flowers called pansies, fair enough to look upon, but without scent: Ah! how well these are like my thoughts! she said to herself; fair to speak, and good for nothing.
Another, considering the course of a river, said: My soul shall never have rest, until it be engulfed in God, its beginning and its end, as this river is engulfed in the ocean.
Saint Frances, beholding a pleasant brook by whose side she had knelt to pray, was ravished in ecstasy, and repeated these words several times: Behold the image of God’s grace: even so does it flow very gently into hearts.
Another, seeing trees in blossom, said: Alas! must I be the only one who bears no flowers in the garden of the Church? Another, seeing little chicks gathered beneath their mother, began to say: O Lord! preserve us thus beneath the shadow of Thy wings; and another, seeing the sunflower, made this reflection: When shall it be, O my God! that my soul shall thus follow the attractions of Thy grace? Then, noticing those little flowers called pansies, fair enough to look upon, but without scent: Ah! how well these are like my thoughts! she said to herself; fair to speak, and good for nothing.
It is thus, Philothea, that one draws good thoughts and holy aspirations from what presents itself to us in the common course of this mortal life. Unhappy are those who turn creatures away from the Creator, to make them serve sin; but blessed are those who refer creatures to the glory of the Creator, and employ their vanity to the honor of truth. Indeed, says Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, I regard it as a good habit to refer all things to the profit of one’s soul. You may read on this subject the epitaph which Saint Jerome composed for Saint Paula, and you will see with pleasure how many aspirations and holy affections that fair soul made use of on all manner of occasions.
It is in this practice of spiritual retirement and ejaculatory prayers that the great work of devotion consists. It is so useful that, strictly speaking, it can take the place of the other kinds of prayer, whereas if it is neglected, there is scarcely any way to make up for it. Without it, one understands nothing of the contemplative life, and discharges the duties of the active life very poorly: for then rest is but idleness, and work but agitation. I therefore beseech you to embrace it with all your heart, and never to abandon it.
It is in this practice of spiritual retirement and ejaculatory prayers that the great work of devotion consists. It is so useful that, strictly speaking, it can take the place of the other kinds of prayer, whereas if it is neglected, there is scarcely any way to make up for it. Without it, one understands nothing of the contemplative life, and discharges the duties of the active life very poorly: for then rest is but idleness, and work but agitation. I therefore beseech you to embrace it with all your heart, and never to abandon it.