Untitled - Saints' Books

Necessity of Mental Prayer. 45 7
especially if he is a confessor; he has to place souls on
the road that leads to God, so often to resolve doubts
unexpectedly, to give advice in every confession, and
then to render an account of all to Jesus Christ.
Now how will he receive this light unless he makes
mental prayer
?
Mental prayer, says St. Bonaventure, 1 is a torch
which on this earth of darkness shows us the road on
which we should walk. St. Bernard, treating of the
same subject, says that mental prayer
is like a mirror:
this comparison pleases me much. If one has a stain on
one s countenance and one looks in the mirror, one
sees it and takes it
away; without this mirror, the stain
remains, and will always remain; as one does not see
it,
one does not take it
away. So it is with mental
prayer: if we have a defect,
dangerous occasion, when we go to mental prayer, as if
going before the mirror, we see in our conscience this
defect that we have, we see this danger of losing God;
we see it and we take it
away.
Even though one should have had the misfortune of
if we find ourselves in a
falling over the precipice, if one practises mental prayer
with perseverance, one will surely come forth from it.
Hence we quote the remark made by a master of the
spiritual life: With sin there can often be united some act
virtuous in itself, as, for instance, to be in the state of sin
and to give alms, to be worldly and to be patient; but
mental prayer and sin cannot remain united together.
to make mental
Why ? Because if we begin voluntarily
prayer, there are some that go to mental prayer by
force, and then it will do them no good, if, I say, we
go to it voluntarily, either we shall give up mental
prayer, or we shall give up sin. And according
to St.
Teresa, 2 however great may be the ruin of a soul, if it
perseveres in mental prayer, it
is sure that the Lord will
1
Diat. sal tit. 2, c. 5.
2 Life, ch. 8,