Untitled - Saints' Books

460 Appendix.
These vicious tendencies are produced only by our
corrupt nature, and it is
very difficult to conquer them
without much mental prayer; but by means of this
prayer we overcome them easily. The soul in mental
prayer
is like iron in the fire: when the iron is cold it is
difficult to work; but when it is
put into the fire it be
comes soft, and allows itself to be easily worked: so it
is with the soul. A master of the spiritual life calls it a
furnace, because as the fire softens the iron and renders
for the
it
easy to work, so mental prayer makes it
easy
soul to overcome its passions. For example, some one
receives an affront, an injury that wounds his self-love:
before mental prayer,
it is
very difficult to him to over
come the passion that incites him to grow angry, to de
fend himself, and even to furnish him at times with
pretexts to make him believe that this is necessary.
The iron is
yet cold, it must be put into the fire. Let
this troubled soul enter mental prayer, and at once the
sweet flame of the Holy Ghost touches it, and an in
terior voice tells him: Is it not better to bear that with
out resenting
it ? Leave rather your defence to God,
as your divine Master did when he was calumniated, he
who was more innocent than you! At once the iron loses
its hardness; the soul is softened, is appeased: with
out mental prayer,
it would have been otherwise.
St. John Chrysostom l says that in a soul mental
prayer is as a fountain in a garden. Oh, how beautiful
is a garden when a fountain continually waters it with
its vivifying waters ! how fresh the verdure, how resplen
dent the flowers, how abundant the fruit! Take away
the fountain, and everything will languish and dry up
grass, flowers, fruits, and plants. Hence how quickly
does one recognize a priest who makes mental prayer!
See his manner of saying Mass, of preaching, of con
versing! See his humility and modesty in his actions, in
1
Ad pop. Ant. horn. 79.